UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT   LOS  ANGELES 


THE  HUMAN  WAY 


ADDRESSES  ON  RACE  PROBLEMS 

AT  THE 

SOUTHERN    SOCIOLOGICAL    CONGRESS 
ATLANTA,  1913 


EDITED  BY 

JAMES  E.  McCULLOCH 


NASHVILLE 

SOUTHERN  SOCIOLOGICAL  CONGRESS 
1913 


CONTENTS 


Introductory   Note    3 

Organization    4 

The  Present  Situation   5 

James  H.  Dillard,  M.A.,  LL.D. 

How  to  Enlist  the  Welfare  Agencies  of  the  South  for  Improvement 

of  Conditions  Among  the  Negroes  8 

W,  D.  Weatherford,  Ph.D. 

Work  of  the  Commission  of  Southern  Universities  on  the  Race 

Question     19 

J  Prof.  C.  H.  Brough. 

The  Economic  Status  of  the  Negro 26 

Prof.  William  M.  Hunley,  Ph.D. 

The  Negro  as  a  Farmer  36 

Prof.  R.  J.  H.  DeLoach,  Ph.D. 

The  Negro  Working  Out  His  Own  Salvation  41 

Prof.  E.  C.  Branson,  A,M. 

Social  and  Hygienic  Condition  of  the  Negro,  and  Needed  Reforms     55 
Prof.  Josiah  Morse,  Ph.D. 

The  Prevalence  of  Contagious  and  Infectious  Diseases  Among  the 

Negroes,  and  the  Necessity  of  Preventive  Measures 64 

Dean  George  W.  Hubbard,  M.D. 
Desirable  Civic  Reforms  in  the  Treatment  of  the  Negro 70 

Prof.  W.  O.  Scroggs,  Ph.D. 
Rural  Education  and  Social  Efficiency  78 

Prof.  Jackson  Davis,  A.M. 

The  Work  of  the  Jeanes  and  Slater  Funds  85 

Prof.  B.  C.  Caldwell. 
The  Need  and  Value  of  Industrial  Education  for  Negroes 89 

Miss  Grace  Biglow  House,  M.A. 

Open  Church  Work  for  the  Negro  98 

Rev.  John  Little. 

Racial  Self-Respect  and  Racial  Antagonism  102 

Charles  V.  Roman,  M.A.,  M.D. 
The  Test  of  Civilization   112 

Mrs.  J.  D,  Hammond. 

The  White  Man's  Task  in  the  Uplift  of  the  Negro 118 

Rev.  A.  J.  Barton,  D.D. 

A  Cathedral  of  Co-operation    134 

Bishop  Wilbur  P.  Thirkield,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Statement  on  Race  Relationships    141 

Bibliography     144 


i 


M 

g 

INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 

>- 

K 

s 

QQ 

-j  AT  the  closing  session  of  the  conferences  on  Race  Prob- 

lems held  during  the  meeting  of  the  Southern  Sociological 
e*        Congress  in  Atlanta  there  were  numerous  and  emphatic 
in        expressions  of  opinion  that  the  addresses,  in  addition  to 
g       their  incorporation  in  the  general  publication  of  the  Con- 
gress, should  be  issued  in  a  separate  edition.    Pledges  were 
promptly  given  in  support  of  the  plan.    In  response  to  this 
,3       demand  the  present  volume  is  published. 

JAMES  H.  DILLARD,  Chairman. 

o 
o 

ca 

UJ 


443956 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CONGRESS 


OFFICERS 

President Gov.  William  H.  Mann,  Richmond,  Va. 

First  Vice  President Rev.  John  E.  White,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Atlanta,  Ga. 

Second  Vice  President Mrs.  J.  A.  Baker,  Houston,  Tex. 

Treasurer Mr.  M.  E.  Holderness,  Nashville,  Tenn. 

General  Secretary Mr.  J.  E.  McCulloch,  Nashville,  Tenn. 

Founder Mrs.  Anna  Russell  Cole,  Nashville,  Tenn. 

COMMITTEE  ON  RACE  PROBLEMS 


James  H.  Dillard,  M.A.,  LL.D., 
Rev.  J.  G.  Snedecor,  Tuscaloosa 
Mr.    A.    Trieschmann,    Crossett, 

Ark. 

Dr.  Thomas  Jesse  Jones,  Wash- 
ington 

Dr.  Lincoln  Hulley,  Leland,  Fla. 
Prof.    E.     C.    Branson,    Athens, 

Ga. 

Hon.  Wm.  H.   Fleming,  Augusta 
Dr.  J.  D.  Hammond,  Augusta 
Miss  Belle  H.  Bennett,  Richmond, 

Ry. 
Rev.  John  Little,  Louisville 


Chairman,  New  Orleans,  La. 

Bishop    W.    P.    Thirkield,    New 

Orleans 

Mr.  G.  H.  Huckaby,  Shreveport 
Mr.  A.  H.  Stone,  Dunleith,  Miss. 
Rev.  H.  K.  Boyer,  Winston-Salem, 

N.  C. 
Miss    Grace    Biglow    House,    St 

Helena  Island,  S.  C. 
Dr.  W.  D.  Weatherford,  Nashville 
Bishop  W.  R.  Lambuth,  Nashville 
Dr.  George  W.  Hubbard,  Nashville 
Rev.  A.  J.  Barton,  Waco 
Dr.  H.  B.  Frissell,  Hampton,  Va. 


THE  PRESENT  SITUATION 

JAMES  H.  DILLARD,  M.A.,  LL.D. 

AT  the  first  meeting  of  the  Southern  Sociological  Con- 
gress, held  last  year  in  Nashville,  there  were  two  confer- 
ences -on  race  problems.  These  conferences  were  well  at- 
tended and  proved  most  interesting.  There  were  present 
a  number  of  representative  men  of  both  races,  and  it  was 
found  that  there  was  not  time  to  hear  all  who  wished  to 
speak  on  the  subject.  During  the  session  of  this  first  Con- 
gress a  committee  was  appointed  on  Race  Relationships  con- 
sisting of  the  following:  A.  J.  Barton,  Waco,  Tex.;  Miss 
Belle  H.  Bennett,  Richmond,  Ky. ;  C.  E.  Branson,  Ath- 
ens, Ga. ;  William  H.  Fleming,  Augusta;  H.  B.  Frissell, 
Hampton,  Va. ;  J.  D.  Hammond,  Augusta;  G.  W.  Hub- 
bard,  Nashville;  G.  H.  Huckaby,  Shreveport;  W.  R.  Lam- 
buth,  Nashville;  John  Little,  Louisville;  J.  D.  Snedecor, 
Tuscaloosa;  A.  H.  Stone,  Dunleith,  Miss.;  W.  P.  Thirkield, 
New  Orleans;  C.  B.  Wilmer,  Atlanta;  W.  D.  Weatherford, 
Nashville,  Secretary ;  and  James  H.  Dillard,  New  Orleans, 
Chairman.  Of  this  committee,  ten  are  present  at  this  second 
Congress. 

There  was  also  formed  at  the  first  Congress  what  is 
known  as  the  University  Commission  on  Race  Questions. 
This  Commission  consists  of  representatives  from  ten  South- 
ern State  Universities  as  follows:  Alabama,  J.  J.  Doster; 
Arkansas,  C.  H.  Brough,  Chairman;  Florida,  J.  M.  Farr; 
Georgia,  R.  J.  H.  DeLoach;  Louisiana,  W.  D.  Scroggs;  Mis- 
sissippi, W.  D.  Hedleston;  North  Carolina,  C.  W.  Bain; 
South  Carolina,  Josiah  Morse;  Tennessee,  J.  D.  Hoskins; 
Texas,  W.  S.  Sutton;  Virginia,  W.  M.  Hunley,  Secretary. 
Five  of  these  gentlemen  are  on  the  present  program. 

Our  present  program  contains  the  names  of  nineteen 
who  are  to  read  papers  or  make  addresses,  and  of  the  nine- 
teen appointees  five  are  colored.  Seventeen  of  the  nineteen 
are  present.  The  addresses  will  be  followed  by  discussions 
which  I  hope  will  be  freely  participated  in,  so  far  as  time 
will  permit,  by  members  and  delegates  of  both  races. 


6  THE    HUMAN   WAY 

The  facts  which  I  have  just  stated  tell  the  truth  which, 
in  calling  this  meeting  to  order,  I  wish  particularly  to  em- 
phasize. This  truth  is  that  the  time  has  come  when  the 
earnest  and  thoughtful  white  people  of  the  South  have  de- 
termined to  face  the  problems  involved  in  race  relationships, 
and  to  cooperate  with  each  other,  with  the  colored  people 
themselves,  and  with  friends  in  the  North  in  promoting  bet- 
ter conditions  than  have  existed  since  reconstruction  days. 

In  those  early  days  of  reconstruction  the  great  trouble 
was  caused  by  the  predominating  influence  of  men  who, 
however  sincere  they  may  have  been,  attempted  to  do  the 
impossible  overnight.  I  can  never  think  of  those  days  with- 
out calling  to  mind  an  illustration  which  was  being  exhib- 
ited about  the  same  time  in  the  Old  World. 

Fifty-odd  years  ago  Italy  was  an  expression,  not  a  united 
country.  There  was  a  bundle  of  divided  States,  but  not  one 
country  as  it  is  to-day.  All  great  Italians,  both  statesmen 
and  men  of  letters,  earnestly  desired  union.  Three  great 
men  stood  out  among  many  as  the  champions  of  a  United 
Italy.  These  were  Mazzini,  Garibaldi,  and  Cavour.  Mazzini 
was  uncompromisingly  in  favor  of  a  republic,  and  worked 
largely  by  secret  associations  and  conspiracy.  Garibaldi 
was  always  ready  for  fight  and  for  any  extreme  measures. 
Cavour  was  the  statesman,  the  greatest,  I  think,  with  his 
contemporary  Lincoln,  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Cavour 
said  that  a  republic  at  that  stage  of  the  game  was  impos- 
sible. He  knew  that  Europe  would  not  allow  it,  even  if 
the  Italians  were  ready  for  it.  He  said:  "I  will  work  for 
the  possible.  I  will  take  the  kingdom  of  Sardinia  and  unite 
Italy  around  that."  And  he  did. 

Mr.  William  R.  Thayer,  one  of  our  American  historians, 
has  written  the  standard  life  of  Cavour,  one  of  the  greatest 
books  ever  written  in  America.  In  speaking  of  Cavour  he 
used  the  expression  that  Cavour  had  "an  enthusiasm  for  the 
possible."  It  is  a  great  expression.  Most  "enthusiasts" 
have  an  enthusiasm  for  the  impossible.  The  impossible  may 
be  the  ideal,  may  come  later  on,  but  if  it  be  impossible  at 
the  time,  the  highest  wisdom  is  to  be  enthusiastic  for  the 
possible,  and  to  wait. 


THE  PRESENT     SITUATION  7 

In  our  own  country,  after  the  civil  war,  if  statesmen 
like  Charles  Sumner  and  Thaddeus  Stevens  had  attempted 
less,  they  would  have  accomplished  more  in  the  long  run. 
Idealists  ignore  the  fact  that  we  are  walking  on  the  earth. 
We  humans  will  not  be  pushed  too  fast.  We  have  to  grow. 
If  the  forward  push  be  too  rapid  or  too  far,  reaction  is  inevi- 
table. In  all  forward  movements  this  is  a  fact  which  it  is 
the  part  of  highest  wisdom  to  remember.  Sumner  and 
Stevens  ignored  this  fact.  I  think  we  may  guess  that  Lin- 
coln, had  he  been  spared  to  deal  with  reconstruction,  would 
have  taken  a  different  course.  I  think  that,  like  Cavour  in 
Italy,  Lincoln  would  have  had  an  "enthusiasm  for  the  pos- 
sible," and  would  have  foreseen  that  it  was  impossible  to  do 
outright  what  later  events  have  shown  to  have  been  im- 
possible of  accomplishment  in  such  hasty  way. 

But  we  had  the  reconstruction  days  with  their  trail  of 
ill  will.  It  is  needless  to  dwell  on  the  ugly  details.  I  am  not 
claiming  that  there  were  no  well-meaning  efforts  in  the 
process  of  reconstruction,  or  that  the  men  engaged  were 
all  of  them  nothing  more  than  selfish  and  unscrupulous  pol- 
iticians, but  we  know  the  results.  For  forty  years  the  well- 
disposed  have  been  suffering  from  the  bitterness  that  was 
begotten.  Let  us  be  glad  that  what  may  be  called  the  post- 
reconstruction  period  seems  at  last  to  be  drawing  to  a  close. 

This  is  the  truth  which  I  wish  to  emphasize  at  this  time. 
I  sincerely  believe  that  the  day  of  better  feeling  is  at  hand. 
I  believe  that  the  day  has  come  when  we  shall,  if  I  may 
say  so,  start  over  again  and  develop  right  relations  in  the 
right  way.  We  Southern  white  people  now  realize  two  facts 
in  regard  to  the  relationship  of  the  races.  First,  we  real- 
ize that  the  old  relationship,  so  frequently  typified  in  the 
affection  of  the  black  mammy,  is  one  that  must  pass.  Sec- 
ond, we  realize  that  the  spirit  of  no  relationship,  no  respon- 
sibility, no  cooperation,  is  impossible.  We  see  that  our 
whole  public  welfare  requires  the  education  and  improve- 
ment of  the  colored  people  in  our  midst.  We  see  that  public 
health  depends  on  common  efforts  between  the  races.  We 
see  that  the  prosperity  of  these  Southern  States  is  condi- 
tioned on  greater  intelligence  among  the  masses  of  all  the 


8  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

people.  We  see  that  every  consideration  of  justice  and 
righteousness  demands  our  good  will,  our  helpful  guidance 
wherever  it  can  be  given,  and  our  cooperation. 

Let  us  hope  that  the  deliberations  and  discussions  of 
these  conferences  will  tend  to  promote  this  spirit  of  good 
will  and  cooperation.  Let  us  hope  that  by  coming  together 
we  may  learn  better  how  to  set  ourselves  to  work  to  im- 
prove conditions.  Let  us  speak  out  with  plainness  and  hon- 
est conviction,  and  at  the  same  time  with  good  feeling  and 
sympathy. 


HOW  TO  ENLIST  THE  WELFARE  AGENCIES  OF  THE 

SOUTH  FOR  IMPROVEMENT  OF  CONDITIONS 

AMONG  THE  NEGROES 

W.  D.   WEATHERFORD,  PH.D.,  NASHVILLE,  TENN. 

I  WISH  to  make  clear  in  the  very  beginning  that  the 
same  type  of  agency  which  can  improve  the  conditions  for 
the  white  people  can  also  improve  the  conditions  of  life 
for  the  negro.  Humanity  is  humanity  whether  the  color  be 
black  or  white,  and  I  know  no  fiat  of  God  that  makes  white 
any  more  valuable  as  a  color  or  any  easier  to  deal  with 
than  black.  Every  social  agency  which  is  working  for  the 
uplift  of  the  white  race  should  also  be  working  for  the  uplift 
of  the  colored  race,  unless  there  is  a  special  branch  of  that 
organization  working  for  the  negroes.  Let  us  take  for 
granted  in  this  paper  that  we  believe  the  negro  needs  help 
in  practically  every  way  that  the  white  man  needs  help. 
Here  it  simply  falls  to  my  lot  to  enumerate  some  of  the 
agencies  which  are  working  for  the  uplift  among  white 
people,  and  to  show  how  they  can  be  used  to  uplift  the 
negro. 

First,  we  would  mention  the  Church  as  the  greatest  of 
all  social  and  welfare  agencies.  We  do  not  now  speak  of  the 
Church  as  a  dispenser  of  charity  or  the  builder  of  orphan- 
ages and  asylums.  We  speak  of  the  Church  as  a  social 


HOW   TO  ENLIST  THE   SOUTH'S   WELFARE  AGENCIES         9 

agent  in  a  much  truer  and  deeper  sense  than  any  of  these. 
The  great  social  mission  of  the  Church  is  the  bringing  in  of 
a  new  appreciation  of  the  sacredness  and  value  of  the  indi- 
vidual man.  This  means  brotherhood.  It  means  equal 
safety  of  life.  It  means  an  equal  chance  to  make  a  living 
and  build  a  life.  Now  the  equal  opportunity  can  only 
come  when  every  man  is  recognized  as  a  real  man,  as  a 
person.  The  Church,  and  the  Church  alone,  can  bring  about 
any  such  estimate  of  humanity.  No  amount  of  legislation 
can  ever  make  us  value  the  individual;  it  can  only  prevent 
or  deter  us  from  harming  that  individual.  Law  can  never 
change  our  essential  attitude  toward  humanity.  To  this 
problem  the  Church  holds  the  key.  Its  message  of  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man  puts  new 
meaning  into  every  life  and  guarantees  a  new  safety  and 
security. 

Now  it  is  high  time  that  the  white  Churches  were  awak- 
ing to  the  responsibility  of  extending  this  sense  of  sacred- 
ness  to  all  men ;,  to  the  ignorant  as  well  as  to  the  learned,  to 
the  wicked  as  well  as  to  the  righteous,  to  the  black  as  well 
as  to  the  white. 

In  a  paper  last  year  before  this  Congress  I  called  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  this  very  attitude  of  man  to  man  is  the 
Gibraltar  on  which  the  Southern  Church  and  State  may 
wreck  themselves.  I  wish  to  repeat  here  that  we  cannot 
hope  to  have  any  real  respect  for  law,  we  cannot  build 
up  any  civilized  community  so  long  as  personality  is  not 
held  sacred.  So  long  as  we  grind  up  our  children  in  the 
mills,  so  long  as  we  stifle  our  poor  ones  in  the  damp  cellars 
and  cheap  tenement  houses,  so  long  as  we  allow  negroes  to 
be  lynched — just  so  long  will  we  fail  to  have  any  genuine 
appreciation  of  the  sacredness  and  value  of  the  person. 
We  cannot  despise  some  persons  and  value  others,  for  per- 
sonality is  personality,  whether  it  is  poor  or  rich,  whether 
black  or  white;  and  we  despise  any  portion  of  humanity 
at  the  risk  of  losing  our  sense  of  the  sacredness  of  all  men, 
and  hence  breaking  down  our  laws,  destroying  our  civili- 
zation, giving  the  lie  to  our  Christian  ethics,  and  damning 
our  own  souls. 


10  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

I  want  to  maintain  here  and  now  that  every  minister 
of  the  gospel,  every  Secretary  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  or  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association, 
every  teacher  in  our  schools,  every  social  worker  in  the 
South  has  a  sacred  and  solemn  obligation  to  instill  into  the 
hearts  of  all  those  whom  they  lead  this  principle  of  the 
value  and  sacredness  of  the  person.  We  need  more  ser- 
mons preached  on  this  theme.  We  need  more  addresses  in 
our  Associations,  we  need  more  emphasis  on  this  in  our 
schools.  If  we  cannot  win  the  day  here,  we  are  hopelessly 
lost.  And  we  are  not  now  winning  the  day.  We  are  not 
growing  as  we  should  in  our  appreciation  of  the  sacredness 
of  human  personality.  The  horrible  lynchings  that  have 
been  taking  place  in  the  South  during  the  last  few  months 
are  enough  to  make  our  blood  run  cold  with  despair.  More 
of  us  must  speak  out  on  this  topic.  It  is  not  opposition  to 
lynching  we  are  talking  about — we  must  all  oppose  that, 
God  knows — but  we  must  go  deeper  than  that.  We  must 
cure  the  horrible  cancer  that  eats  at  the  heart  of  our  civi- 
lization, this  horrible  lack  of  appreciation  for  the  sacred- 
ness of  the  individual  person.  This  is  our  malady,  and  so 
long  as  we  do  nothing  to  cure  it  we  may  expect  it  to  flower 
forth  in  bloody  lynchings,  in  underfed  women,  in  starved 
and  neglected  children,  and  in  a  criminal  system  which  is 
more  cruel  than  raw  barbarism. 

We  need  a  new  crusade  of  a  "Peter  the  Hermit,"  not  to 
rescue  an  empty  tomb  from  the  hands  of  an  infidel  power, 
but  a  crusade  to  wrench  the  helpless  and  the  belated  from 
the  hands  of  a  maddened  mob  which  puts  money  above  man, 
which  puts  prejudice  above  persons,  which  puts  license  in- 
stead of  law,  which  uses  immoral  mobs  to  uphold  morality, 
which  despises  and  degrades  all  personality  in  a  so-called 
attempt  to  vindicate  the  wrong  of  a  single  person.  If  the 
Churches,  the  schools,  and  the  Associations  would  throw 
themselves  into  this  great  crusade,  we  should  have  a  new 
appreciation  of  the  Godhood  in  man  and  hence  less  of  injus- 
tice, inequality,  and  crime.  I  should  like  to  see  this  Con- 
gress send  out  a  call  for  such  a  crusade  as  this,  which  would 
set  a  thousand  pulpits  ringing  with  a  new  message  of 


HOW   TO  ENLIST  THE   SOUTH'S   WELFARE  AGENCIES       11 

humanity,  and  would  give  new  meaning  to  the  teaching 
in  ten  thousand  schoolrooms,  because  God  and  humanity 
had  found  a  defending  voice. 

The  second  social  agency  which  must  be  used  for  the 
uplift  of  the  negro  is  the  school.  We  do  not  always  think  of 
the  Church  and  the  school  as  social  and  welfare  agencies, 
but  they  are  the  strong  twin  brothers,  without  which  all 
other  agencies  would  be  absolutely  helpless.  The  school 
touches  more  classes  of  people,  more  members  of  each 
class,  and  each  member  for  a  longer  time,  and  at  a  most 
favorable  period,  than  does  any  other  social  agency.  It 
takes  the  children  of  the  rich  and  of  the  poor  alike,  the 
cultured  and  the  uncultured,  the  moral  and  the  morally 
deficient,  and  deals  with  them  together  in  such  a  fashion 
as  to  give  a  unique  opportunity  to  really  serve.  Our  task 
therefore  is  to  socialize  the  school,  to  so  fill  it  with  the 
message  of  social  uplift  that  it  will  minister  to  the  whole 
life  of  the  community  in  which  it  exists. 

In  order  that  the  negro  school  may  thus  become  social- 
ized, there  are  four  things  necessary  as  I  see  it,  and  in  all 
these  respects  we  are  now  making  substantial  progress. 

1.  We  must  put  more  money  into  our  negro  schools  in 
order  that  they  may  have  more  decent  buildings,  more  in- 
spiring surroundings,  better  equipment,  and  longer  school 
terms. 

2.  We  must  set  a  new  type  of  curriculum  for  our  negro 
children.    These  schools  must  fit  into  the  needs  of  the  life 
of  the  people  whom  they  serve.    We  are  now  clamoring  for 
a  type  of  curriculum  for  our  country  schools  for  white  chil- 
dren which  will  widely  depart  from  the  type  used  in  our  city 
schools.    Why  should  we  not  be  logical  and  see  to  it  that  we 
give  to  the  negroes  a  type  of  textbooks  and  courses  suited 
to  their  specialized  need? 

3.  We  need  better  trained  teachers.    The  average  negro 
teacher  has  such  little  training  that  he  would  not  be  able 
to  comprehend  what  you  meant  if  you  talked  about  the 
school  being  an  agency  for  social  uplift.    But  these  teach- 
ers are  giving  more  than  that  for  which  they  are  paid.  Why 
should  we  expect  to  get  all  the  virtues  of  a  trained  intellect, 


12  THE    HUMAN   WAY 

a  skillful  hand,  and  a  consecrated  heart,  all  combined  in  the 
person  of  a  negro  teacher  whom  we  pay  the  handsome  sti- 
pend of  twenty-two  dollars  and  forty-eight  cents  per  month, 
or  the  princely  fortune  of  eighty  dollars,  ninety-two  cents, 
and  eight  mills  for  the  whole  school  term,*  as  is  the  case 
in  one  State? 

4.  We  must  have  better  school  supervision.  If  the 
white  teacher  in  a  city,  with  good  training,  splendid  equip- 
ment, the  stimulus  of  fellow  teachers,  needs  the  careful 
supervision  of  a  city  superintendent,  how  much  more  does 
the  poorly  trained  negro  teacher,  working  alone  in  the  coun- 
try, with  no  equipment,  little  encouragement,  no  inspira- 
tion from  fellow  teachers — how  very  much  more  does  she 
need  careful  supervision,  inspiration,  and  direction?  I 
cannot  tell  you  what  a  wonderful  transformation  is  being 
wrought  in  those  countries  where  Dr.  Dillard  through  his 
Jeanes  Foundation  is  able  to  place  a  county  supervising 
teacher,  who  heartens  these  isolated  teachers,  giving  them 
training  and  supervision.  This  Congress  ought  to  send  out 
a  stirring  call  to  the  philanthropists  of  this  country  to 
put  into  the  hands  of  Dr.  Dillard  and  his  Board  enough 
money  to  place  such  a  supervising  teacher  in  every  county 
in  the  South.  At  this  same  time  we  should  make  a  plea 
for  better  supervision  on  the  part  of  county  superintend- 
ents. Much  has  been  done,  but  much  more  remains  to  be 
done. 

One  can  think  of  no  greater  and  more  far-reaching  influ- 
ence than  that  of  a  socialized  school — a  school  into  which 
the  conception  of  the  value  of  humanity  has  found  its 
way;  a  school  where  the  course  of  study  fits  its  pupils  to 
take  their  place  in  the  life  of  the  community;  a  school 
where  health  and  housing,  morals  and  manners,  efficiency 
and  service  are  given  full  presentation.  The  negro  school 
must  be  made  an  effective  agent  for  uplifting  the  race.  We 
must  set  forth  some  standards  for  it,  we  must  have  some 
convictions  about  it,  we  must  write  some  policies  for  it, 
and  we  must  put  our  shoulders  to  the  wheel  and  swear 
by  all  that  is  holy  that  these  things  shall  come  to  pass. 


*"Negro  Life  in  the  South,"  p.  98. 


HOW   TO  ENLIST  THE   SOUTH 'S   WELFARE  AGENCIES       13 

Another  welfare  agency  in  the  South,  though  it  would 
probably  not  be  mentioned  by  our  professional  social  work- 
ers, is  that  of  the  United  States  Farm  Demonstration  work. 
This  work  goes  into  the  country,  and  through  the  personal 
visits  of  the  trained  agent  attempts  to  teach  the  farmer 
how  to  raise  more  corn,  cotton,  or  tobacco,  how  to  keep  his 
land  up,  how  to  utilize  his  place  for  stock-raising — in  fact, 
how  to  make  a  comfortable  and  respectable  living  where 
he  before  was  simply  eking  out  an  existence.  Hundreds  of 
farmers  are  now  enjoying  splendid  crops  and  good  homes 
who  were  formerly  on  the  edge  of  bankruptcy  and  homeless- 
ness.  The  great  need  is  that  this  work  shall  be  extended 
to  the  negro  as  well  as  to  the  white  man.  There  are  a  few 
Negro  Farm  Demonstration  Agents,  and  some  of  the  white 
agents  have  a  few  negroes  working  under  their  direction, 
but  the  great  mass  of  negro  farmers  are  not  touched.  With 
890,000  negro  farmers  in  the  South,  controlling  either  as 
owners  or  tenants  forty  million  acres  of  improved  lands,  it 
is  high  time  we  should  wake  up  to  the  enormous  economic 
problem  involved  in  the  proper  training  of  these  men. 

These  three  forces  which  we  have  mentioned  are  usually 
left  out  of  an  enumeration  of  the  social  and  welfare  agen- 
cies, but  they  are  the  heart  of  the  problem  in  this  solution 
of  .the  race  question.  Let  us  now  pass  to  some  of  the  regular 
agencies  for  social  and  civic  betterment. 

The  city  charity  organizations  have  sprung  up  like 
mushrooms  all  over  North  America,  and  we  are  now  begin- 
ning to  have  our  full  share  in  the  South. 

The  city  of  Boston  boasted  1,424  such  organizations  in 
1907,  devoted  to  every  conceivable  kind  of  relief.  We  were 
told  by  a  social  worker  in  Atlanta  recently  that  there  were 
one  hundred  specialized  social  workers  representing  almost 
an  equal  number  of  betterment  organizations  in  this  city. 
The  great  difficulty  with  this  great  mass  of  relief  and  bet- 
terment work  lies  in  its  lack  of  system,  coordination,  and 
cooperation.  There  is  an  endless  amount  of  overlapping 
and  duplication,  together  with  an  enormous  amount  of  over- 
sight of  problems  which  need  attention.  It  is  in  this  field 
of  omission  and  oversight  that  the  negro  often  finds  him- 


14  THE    HUMAN    WAY 

self.  In  the  South,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  the  negro  probably 
has  a  good  chance  of  securing  relief  from  physical  suffer- 
ing by  way  of  cold  and  hunger,  as  has  the  poor  white.  But 
the  difficulty  lies  in  the  realm  of  corrective  service.  Prac- 
tically nothing  is  now  being  done  in  any  systematic  fashion 
to  prevent  negroes  from  coming  into  positions  of  depend- 
ence. There  is  need  for  a  definite  negro  department  in 
every  city  charity  organization,  which  will  carefully  study 
the  problem  and  lay  constructive  policies  to  meet  the  need. 
In  this  connection  it  is  vitally  important  that  the  negro 
himself  be  induced  to  become  an  integral  part  of  the  charity 
organization  in  order  that  he  may  assume  some  responsi- 
bility for  the  help  of  his  own  people.  Such  a  negro  charity 
society  was  organized  recently  in  Columbia,  S.  C.,  and  found 
a  most  hearty  response  among  the  negroes  of  that  city.  This 
negro  department  of  the  city  charities  would  make  a  careful 
study  of  the  sanitary  conditions  of  those  sections  of  the 
city  occupied  largely  by  negroes,  and  by  giving  publicity  to 
such  facts  would  cooperate  with  the  white  organization 
in  bringing  about  needed  reform.  It  would  also  study  the 
housing  problem.  This  can  be  done  by  negroes  with  much 
more  facility  and  ease  than  it  can  ever  be  done  by  white 
people.  They  would  enlist  the  cooperation  of  negro  physi- 
cians in  studying  the  health  conditions  of  the  negro  popula- 
tion. All  this  work  by  negroes  would  help  to  train  them 
in  the  largest  conceptions  of  race  pride  and  race  better- 
ment. What  we  are  pleading  for  here  is  that  the  city  charity 
organizations  in  our  Southern  cities  shall  cease  to  work  for 
negroes  and  begin  to  work  with  negroes.  We  are  asking 
that  we  take  them  into  our  plans  in  working  on  this  big  bet- 
terment scheme  for  the  whole  community.  We  are  asking 
that  we  treat  them  as  responsible  members  of  the  com- 
munity, and  not  as  dependent  wards.  We  are  suggesting 
that  we  serve  them  by  helping  them  to  help  themselves. 
We  are  pleading  that  we  not  only  care  for  and  uplift  the 
weak,  the  dependent,  the  poverty-stricken,  but  that  we 
strengthen  the  whole  race  by  uniting  its  leaders  in  a  con- 
structive service  for  their  own  people.  This  seems  to  me  to 
be  the  only  statesmanlike  way  to  work  out  this  problem. 


HOW   TO  ENLIST  THE   SOUTH'S   WELFARE   AGENCIES       15 

I  wish  to  mention  only  one  more  form  of  welfare  work, 
though  many  more  might  be  mentioned.  One  of  the  very 
greatest  needs  of  the  negro  race  in  America  is  a  chance  for 
recreation  among  adults  and  play  life  among  children. 
Those  who  know  the  negro  best  know  very  well  that  there 
is  little  chance  for  either  play  or  recreation,  whether  the 
negroes  live  in  the  city  or  in  the  country.  One  hardly  needs 
call  attention  in  this  company  to  the  part  which  play  must 
contribute  to  the  building  of  character.  The  Boys'  Work 
Commission  of  the  Men  and  Religion  Movement,  in  its 
printed  report,  speaks  of  the  necessity  of  play  life  in  the 
following  terms:  "As  preparation  for  making  a  religious 
response  to  the  world,  something  should  also  be  said  of 
play,  because  of  its  value  in  developing  spontaneity,  coopera- 
tion, abandon,  imagination,  rhythm,  loyalty,  self-sacrifice, 
and  prompt  obedience  to  the  order  of  the  will.  In  general, 
the  hearty  extension  of  interest  to  its  farthest  limit,  and  the 
disposition  to  revel  in  life's  high  and  eternal  possibilities, 
will  depend  upon  the  early  cultivation  through  play,  directed 
and  undirected,  alone  and  in  groups,  of  those  very  move- 
ments of  the  soul  which  later  constitute  religious  faith  and 
worship." 

Play  life  is  the  very  foundation  of  character  develop- 
ment, and  the  child  that  cannot  play,  or  must  play  in  filthy 
and  unwholesome  surroundings,  will  surely  not  grow  into 
the  fullest  strength  of  character.  This  is  precisely  the 
conditions  that  surround  the  play  life  or  lack  of  play  life 
of  negro  children.  One  wonders  if  we  are  aware  that  there 
are  no  playgrounds  for  negro  children.  Most  of  the  parks 
are  not  open  to  them,  most  of  the  ball  fields  are  closed 
against  them,  most  of  the  vacant  lots  are  forbidden  ground 
to  groups  of  negro  children,  and  even  the  negro  school 
grounds  are  so  restricted  in  most  cases  that  cooperative 
games  are  next  to  impossible.  How  can  we  expect  these 
negro  children  to  grow  into  strong  characters,  able  to  co- 
operate with  their  fellow  men  in  the  game  of  life,  if  the 
games  of  childhood  are  forbidden  them  ? 

It  is  time  the  playground  movement  was  getting  some 
real  impetus  in  the  South.  Rev.  John  Little  has  opened  two 


16  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

little  play  spots — not  playgrounds ;  they  aren't  that  big — in 
Louisville,  and  the  negro  children  are  so  thick  there  that 
every  hour  these  places  are  open  you  cannot  get  a  picture 
of  the  grounds  because  of  the  children.  There  is  not  a 
city  in  the  South  where  we  might  not  have  good  playgrounds 
for  the  negro  children  at  a  very  low  cost  and  a  very  high 
rate  of  profit  to  the  whole  community. 

But  not  alone  does  the  negro  child  need  play :  the  adult 
needs  recreation  under  decent  conditions.  About  a  year 
ago  I  made  a  hurried  examination  of  the  amusements  for 
negroes  in  twenty-seven  Southern  cities.  The  facts  were 
gathered  by  both  white  and  colored  students1  and  professors 
in  these  various  cities,  so  that  I  had  a  check  against  the 
optimism  of  white  investigators  and  the  pessimism  of  the 
colored.  But  such  a  check  was  scarcely  needed.  Few  of 
either  class  found  anything  like  adequate  facilities  tfor 
recreation  and  amusement.  The  only  amusement  place 
that  one  of  these  cities  could  report  was  a  dance  hall,  six 
pool  rooms,  and  twenty-six  eating  houses ;  negroes  admitted 
to  the  peanut  gallery  of  the  theaters.  Another  reports  one 
air  dome  (low  resort) ,  one  moving  picture  show  with  vaude- 
ville attachment;  "negroes  admitted  to  peanut  gallery  in 
white  theaters;  but  better  class  say  they  will  not  go  unless 
for  some  special  attraction,  as  they  are  put  with  the  lowest 
class  of  whites."  This  report  is  made  by  a  trained  sociolo- 
gist, a  Southern  white  person  living  in  a  city  of  fifty 
thousand.  Another  city  of  forty  thousand  inhabitants,  at 
least  half  of  whom  are  colored,  reports  not  a  single  moving 
picture  show,  not  a  theater,  not  a  public  playground,  no 
public  baths,  no  public  gymnasiums,  and  only  four  school 
yards  where  people  can  gather  for  recreation  or  amusement. 
Another  investigator  reports:  "Picture  shows  with  vau- 
deville attachment  are  rotten,  attended  by  the  lowest  types 
of  all  colors."  Still  another  city  reports :  "There  have  been 
several  picture  shows  exclusively  for  negroes.  They  have 
been  on  the  vilest  streets  and  have  been  attended  largely 
by  the  worst  element  of  negroes ;  and  from  all  I  can  learn, 
the  pictures  have  not  been  of  the  cleanest  sort,  to  say  the 
least." 


HOW   TO  ENLIST   THE   SOUTH'S   WELFARE  AGENCIES       17 

If  the  social  workers  of  America  are  right  in  claim- 
ing that  the  hours  for  play  for  children  and  the  hours  of 
recreation  and  amusement  for  adults  are  the  hours  of 
greatest  danger  to  the  character  as  well  as  the  hours  of 
greatest  possibility,  surely  we  in  the  South  are  taking 
a  tremendous  risk  in  allowing  nine  millions  of  our  citizens 
to  spend  these  hours  under  conditions  which  are  all  too 
frequently  vile  and  unwholesome.  It  would  be  in  accord 
with  the  best  principles  of  economics  and  sociology,  it 
would  be  high  philanthropy  and  high  statesmanship  to  see 
to  it  that  those  who  live  by  our  sides  have  a  chance  to  build 
character  during  the  leisure  hours.  To  their  work  for 
white  children  and  better  amusement  conditions  for  the 
white  adults,  every  Playground  Association  and  Park  Com- 
mission in  the  South  has  an  obligation  to  make  some  pro- 
vision for  the  negro  people.  If  it  comes  to  a  question  of 
expense,  I  for  one  would  rather  be  taxed  to  support  play- 
grounds instead  of  penitentiaries.  I  would  rather  support 
parks  than  city  jails,  I  would  rather  support  playground 
supervisors  than  chain  gang  wardens.  Incidentally  there 
would  be  less  taxes  to  pay,  greater  safety  of  life  and  prop- 
erty, and  a  growing  company  of  colored  children  who  had  a 
chance  to  become  good  citizens  and  an  economic  asset  in 
the  upbuilding  of  our  Southland. 

We  have  thus  mentioned  five  social  betterment  forces 
in  the  South  which  must  be  harnessed  to  the  problem  of 
negro  uplift.  The  list  is  of  course  suggestive,  and  not 
exhaustive.  We  have  only  meant  to  indicate  the  way  in 
which  we  can  use  forces  now  in  existence  to  further  the 
cause  of  negro  betterment.  In  other  words,  this  is  simply 
a  plea  that  in  all  our  social  welfare  movements  in  the  South 
we  must  remember  that  we  are  not  working  for  20,547,420 
whites,  but  for  twenty  million  whites  plus  8,749,427  negroes. 
We  must  not  forget  that  we  have  a  population  of  29,296,847 
and  that  we  have  no  right  to  omit  a  single  one  of  these 
when  we  are  laying  our  plans  for  social  betterment. 

In  conclusion,  I  would  like  to  say  one  more  thing.  The 
South  is  a  solid  South  in  more  than  a  political  sense.  We 
are  a  solid  South  in  a  social  sense.  I  mean  whatever  affects 


18  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

the  social  welfare  of  one  man  affects  the  social  welfare  of 
every  other  man  in  the  section.  We  are  bound  together 
by  the  fact  of  proximity,  we  are  bound  together  by  eco- 
nomic relations,  we  are  bound  together  by  the  traditions  of 
the  past,  we  are  bound  together  by  all  the  forces  of  present 
life  which  demand  the  guarding  of  our  health,  our  ideals, 
and  our  civilization.  We  are  not  eight  million  negroes  and 
twenty  million  whites;  we  are  twenty-nine  million  human 
beings,  and  whatever  affects  one  of  our  company  must  of 
necessity  affect  all  the  other  28,999,999.  The  sin  of  the 
immoral  will  destroy  the  safety  of  the  moral,  the  disease 
of  the  weakest  will  destroy  the  health  of  the  strongest,  the 
prejudice  of  the  most  ignorant  will  warp  the  judgment  of 
the  most  learned,  the  lawlessness  of  the  most  criminal  will 
blacken  the  fair  name  and  drag  into  criminal  action  the 
law-abiding  instincts  of  the  highest  citizens.  We  must  stand 
or  fall  together.  Thank  God  this  is  true!  This  insures 
that  the  learned  shall  not  despise  the  ignorant,  that  the 
physically  sound  shall  not  despise  the  physically  weak,  the 
rich  man  cannot  scorn  the  poverty-stricken,  the  righteous 
cannot  become  self-righteous  in  their  contempt  for  the 
morally  weak.  Every  welfare  movement  for  whites  must 
become  a  welfare  movement  for  negroes  as  well.  This 
interest  in  the  whole  will  keep  us  from  dying  with  the  dry 
rot  of  complacency.  God  has  put  upon  the  religious;  edu- 
cational, and  social  workers  of  both  races  of  the  South  a 
tremendous  load  of  responsibility;  but  by  his  help  we  will 
carry  it  like  men,  and  be  all  the  stronger  because  of  our 
manly  exertion. 


WORK   OF  THE   COMMISSION   OF  UNIVERSITIES  19 

WORK  OF  THE   COMMISSION  OF  SOUTHERN  UNI- 
VERSITIES ON  THE  RACE  QUESTION 

PROFESSOR  C.  H.  BROUGH,  PH.D.,  UNIVERSITY  OF  ARKANSAS 

THE  South  is  to  be  congratulated  on  the  fact  that  she 
has  educational  statesmen  with  far-sighted  and  philan- 
thropic vision,  of  the  type  of  Dr.  J.  H.  Dillard,  of  New 
Orleans,  who  has  consecrated  his  ripe  experience  and  able 
executive  leadership  to  the  social,  economic,  educational,  re- 
ligious, and  civic  improvement  of  the  negro  race.  Such  a 
leader,  who  is  the  inspiration  and  originator  of  the  Commis- 
sion of  Professors  from  representative  Southern  Univer- 
sities, is  worth  infinitely  more  to  our  nation  and  to  our 
Southland  than  a  thousand  ranting  demagogues. 

With  such  an  inspiring  force  as  Dr.  Dillard,  I  feel  that 
our  commission  could  do  no  better  than  follow  the  splendid 
constructive  outline  which  he  has  mapped  out  for  our  work ; 
therefore,  as  Chairman  of  the  Commission,  I  invite  sugges- 
tions along  the  following  lines : 

I.  What  are  the  conditions? 

1.  Religious.     Contributions,  excessive  denominationalism,  lack 

of  the  practical  in  preaching,  etc. 

2.  Educational.       Self-help,       Northern      contributions,      public 

schools,  etc. 

3.  Hygienic.    The  whole  question  of  health  and  disease. 

4.  Economic.     Land  ownership,  business   enterprises,  abuse   of 

credit  system,  etc. 

5.  Civic.      Common   carriers,    courts   of   justice,    franchise,   etc. 

Changes   and  tendencies  in  the  above   conditions.     Atti- 
tude of  the  whites. 

II.  What   should   and   can   be   done,   especially   by   whites,    for   im- 
provement? 
III.  What  may  be  hoped  as  to  future  conditions  and  relations? 

With  reference  to  the  religious  contributions  to  the  bet- 
terment of  the  negro,  it  may  be  said  that  our  Churches  have 
been  pursuing  a  "penny  wise  and  pound  foolish  economy." 
The  Presbyterians  last  year  gave  an  average  of  three  post- 
age stamps  per  member  to  the  work.  The  Methodists  aver- 
aged less  than  the  price  of  a  cheap  soda  water — just  a 


20  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

five-cent  one.  The  Southern  Baptist  Convention  has  only 
been  asking  from  its  large  membership  $15,000  annually 
for  this  tremendous  work.  In  view  of  these  conditions,  as 
Southern  Churchmen  we  may  well  echo  the  passionately 
eloquent  outburst  of  Dr.  W.  D.  Weatherford,  one  of  the 
most  profound  thinkers  and  virile  writers  on  the  negro  ques- 
tion, and  the  leader  of  the  young  men  of  the  South  in  their 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  work:  "Do  we  mean  to  say  by  our  niggardly 
gifts  that  these  people  are  helpless  and  worthless  in  the 
sight  of  God  ?  Do  we  mean  to  say  that  one  cent  per  member 
is  doing  our  share  in  evangelizing  the  whole  race?  God 
pity  the  Southern  Christians,  the  Southern  Churches,  and 
the  Southern  States,  if  we  do  not  awake  to  our  responsi- 
bility in  this  hour  of  opportunity." 

But  the  responsibility  for  deplorable  religious  conditions 
among  the  negroes  is  not  altogether  with  the  whites.  While 
it  is  true  that  the  negro  is  by  nature  a  religious  and  emo- 
tional animal,  while  there  are  approximately  4,500,000 
Church  members  among  the  10,000,000  negroes  in  the 
United  States,  and  these  Churches  represent  property 
values  of  nearly  $40,000,000,  yet  it  is  also  painfully  true 
that  excessive  denominationalism  and  ecclesiastical  rivalry 
and  dissensions  prevent  the  formation  of  strong,  compact 
organizations  among  them  and,  as  a  result,  there  are  twice 
as  many  Church  organizations  as  there  should  be,  congre- 
gations are  small,  and  the  salaries  paid  their  preachers  are 
not  large  enough  to  secure  competent  men. 

In  connection  with  the  character  of  the  average  negro 
preacher,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  an  investigation 
made  by  Atlanta  University  concerning  the  character  of 
the  negro  ministry,  of  two  hundred  negro  laymen  who  were 
asked  their  opinion  of  the  moral  character  of  negro  preach- 
ers, only  thirty-seven  gave  decided  answers  of  approval. 
Among  faults  mentioned  by  these  negro  laymen  were  self- 
ishness, deceptiveness,  love  of  money,  sexual  impurity, 
dogmatism,  laziness,  and  ignorance,  and  to  these  may  be 
added  the  fact  that  preaching  is  generally  of  a  highly  emo- 
tional type  and  is  wholly  lacking  in  any  practical  moral 
message.  At  this  meeting  of  the  Southern  Sociological  Con- 
gress, I  trust  that  some  one  will  discuss  the  necessity  of 


WORK   OF   THE   COMMISSION   OF  UNIVERSITIES  21 

holding  up  before  the  negroes  the  conception  of  the  Perfect 
Man  of  Galilee,  of  unblemished  character  and  spotless 
purity,  who  went  about  doing  good,  as  well  as  the  concep- 
tion of  a  Saviour  of  power  and  a  Christ  of  divinity. 

Educationally  the  negroes  of  the  South  have  made  re 
markable  progress.  In  1880,  of  the  negro  population  above 
ten  years  of  age,  70  per  cent  was  illiterate.  By  the  end 
of  the  next  decade  this  illiteracy  had  been  reduced  to  57.1 
per  cent,  and  by  the  close  of  the  century  it  had  declined 
to  44.5  per  cent.  During  the  last  ten  years  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  there  was  an  increase  of  the  negro  popula- 
tion of  1,087,000  in  the  school  age  of  ten  years  and  over; 
yet,  despite  this  increase,  there  was  a  decrease  in  illiteracy 
of  190,000.  In  1912  there  were  over  2,000,000  between  the 
ages  of  five  and  eighteen,  or  54  per  cent  of  the  total  number 
of  educable  negro  children,  enrolled  in  the  common  schools 
of  the  former  slave  States,  and  the  percentage  of  illiteracy 
among  the  negroes  is  only  27.5  per  cent. 

In  the  State  of  Arkansas  for  the  year  ending  June  30, 
1912,  109,731  negro  children  were  enrolled  in  the  common 
schools  out  of  a  total  educable  negro  population  of  175,503, 
and  the  percentage  of  illiteracy  among  the  negroes  was  only 
26.2  per  cent.  Besides  the  Branch  Normal  at  Pine  Bluff, 
maintained  by  the  State  at  an  annual  expense  of  $15,000, 
an  institution  which  has  graduated  236  negro  men  and 
women  in  the  thirty-eight  years  of  its  useful  history,  and  six 
splendid  negro  high  schools  at  Fort  Smith,  Helena,  Hot 
Springs,  Little  Rock,  and  Pine  Bluff,  there  are  six  de- 
nominational high  schools  and  colleges  in  Arkansas  that 
are  giving  the  negroes  an  academic  education  and  practical 
instruction  in  manual  training,  domestic  science,  practical 
carpentry,  and  scientific  agriculture.  These  facts  tell  the 
story  of  praiseworthy  sacrifice,  frugality,  struggle,  and 
aspiration. 

The  amount  devoted  to  negro  education  in  the  South  for 
the  forty  years  ending  with  the  academic  session  1910-11 
is  approximately  $166,000,000.  Of  this  amount,  the  negro 
is  beginning  to  pay  a  fair  proportion,  especially  in  North 
Carolina  and  Virginia.  But  the  Southern  white  people  have 
borne  the  brunt  of  the  burden,  meriting  the  stately  eulogy 


22  THE    HUMAN   WAY 

of  the  late  lamented  Commissioner  of  Education,  William 
T.  Harris,  that  "the  Southern  white  people  in  the  organiza- 
tion and  management  of  systems  of  public  schools  manifest 
wonderful  and  remarkable  self-sacrifice,"  and  also  the 
tribute  of  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  editor  of  the  Outlook,  "While 
Northern  benevolence  has  spent  tens  of  thousands  in  the 
South  to  educate  the  negroes,  Southern  patriotism  has  spent 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  for  the  same  purpose. 
This  has  been  done  voluntarily  and  without  aid  from  the 
Federal  Government." 

The  South  as  a  whole  has  appreciated  the  truth  of  the 
six  axioms  in  the  program  of  negro  education  so  admirably 
set  forth  by  Dr.  W.  S.  Sutton,  of  the  University  of  Texas, 
in  a  recent  bulletin,  and  she  boldly  affirms  that  the  highest 
welfare  of  the  "black  child  of  Providence"  committed  to 
her  keeping  lies  not  in  social  or  even  political  equality,  but 
in  equality  of  industrial  opportunity  and  educational  en- 
lightenment. Therefore,  if  the  dangerous  and  insidious 
movement  for  the  segregation  of  the  school  funds  between 
the  races  in  proportion  to  the  amount  paid  in  as  taxes  is  to 
be  checked,  the  negro  must  awake  more  keenly  to  the  neces- 
sity of  self-help,  realizing  that — 

"Self-ease  is  pain.    Thy  only  rest 
Is  labor  for  a  worthy  end, 
A  toil  that  gives  with  what  it  yields, 
And  hears,   while   sowing  outward  fields, 
The  harvest  song  of  inward  peace." 

Closely  allied  to  the  proper  solution  of  the  problem  of 
negro  education  are  the  practical  questions  of  better  hygienic 
conditions  and  housing,  the  reduction  of  the  fearful  mortal- 
ity rate  now  devastating  the  race,  and  the  prevention  of 
disease. 

At  the  present  the  death  rate  of  the  negroes  is  28  per 
one  thousand,  as  opposed  to  15  per  one  thousand  for  the 
whites.  The  chief  causes  of  this  excessive  death  rate 
among  the  negroes  seem  to  be  infant  mortality,  scrofula, 
venereal  troubles,  consumption,  and  intestinal  diseases.  Ac- 
cording to  Hoffman,  over  50  per  cent  of  the  negro  children 
born  in  Richmond,  Va.,  die  before  they  are  one  year  old. 
This  is  due  primarily  to  sexual  immorality,  enfeebled  con- 


WORK   OF  THE   COMMISSION   OF  UNIVERSITIES  23 

stitutions  of  parents,  and  infant  starvation,  all  of  which 
can  be  reduced  by  teaching  the  negroes  the  elementary  laws 
of  health. 

The  highest  medical  authorities  agree  that  the  negro 
has  a  predisposition  to  consumption,  due  to  his  small  chest 
expansion  and  the  insignificant  weight  of  his  lungs,  and 
this  theory  seems  to  be  borne  out  by  the  fact  that  the  excess 
of  negro  deaths  over  whites  from  consumption  is  105  per 
cent  in  the  representative  Southern  cities.  But  however 
strong  the  influence  of  heredity,  it  is  undeniable  that  con- 
sumption, the  hookworm,  and  fevers  of  all  kinds  are  caused 
in  a  large  measure  by  the  miserable  housing  conditions 
prevalent  among  the  negroes.  Poor  housing,  back  alleys, 
no  ventilation,  poor  ventilation,  and  no  sunshine  do  much 
to  foster  diseases  of  all  kinds. 

Furthermore,  people  cannot  be  moral  as  long  as  they 
are  herded  together  like  cattle  without  privacy  or  decency. 
If  a  mother,  a  father,  three  grown  daughters,  and  men 
boarders  have  to  sleep  in  two  small  rooms,  as  is  frequently 
the  case,  we  must  expect  lack  of  modesty,  promiscuity,  il- 
legitimacy, and  sexual  diseases.  It  is  plainly  our  duty  to 
preach  the  gospel  of  hygienic  evangelism  to  our  unfortunate 
"neighbors  in  black,"  for  the  Ciceronian  maxim,  "Mens 
sand  in  corpore  sano,"  is  fundamental  in  education.  Cer- 
tainly he  who  is  instrumental  in  causing  the  negro  to  build 
two-  and  three-room  houses  where  only  a  one-room  shack 
stood  before  and  to  construct  one  sleeping  porch  where 
none  was  before  deserves  more  at  the  hands  of  his  fellow 
man  than  the  whole  race  of  demagogues  put  together. 

Economic  progress  has  been  the  handmaid  of  educa- 
tional enlightenment  in  the  improvement  of  the  negro.  In- 
deed, to  the  negro  the  South  owes  a  debt  of  real  gratitude 
for  her  rapid  agricultural  growth,  and  in  no  less  degree  does 
every  true  son  of  the  South  owe  the  negro  a  debt  of  grati- 
tude for  his  unselfishness,  his  faithfulness,  and  his  devo- 
tion to  the  white  people  of  Dixieland,  not  only  during  the 
dark  and  bloody  days  of  the  Civil  War,  but  during  the  trying 
days  of  our  industrial  and  political  renaissance. 

To  the  negro,  either  as  an  independent  owner,  tenant, 
or  laborer,  we  partly  owe  the  increase  in  the  number  of  our 


24  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

farms  from  504,000  in  1860  to  over  2,000,000  at  the  present 
time;  the  increase  in  our  farm  values  from  $2,048,000  in 
1860  to  $4,500,000  at  the  present  time ;  the  decrease  in  the 
size  of  our  farm  unit  from  321  acres  in  1860  to  84  acres 
at  the  present  time. 

However,  there  are  four  well-defined  retarding  forces 
to  the  fullest  economic  development  of  the  negro  in  the 
South,  and  to  these  evils  this  Commission  should  give 
thoughtful  and  earnest  consideration :  the  tenant  system,  the 
one-crop  system,  the  abuse  of  the  credit  system,  and  rural 
isolation.  I  believe  that  industrial  education,  teaching  the 
negro  the  lessons  of  the  nobility  of  toil,  the  value  of  thrift 
and  honesty,  the  advantages  attaching  to  the  division  of 
labor  and  the  diversification  of  industry  and  the  dangers 
lurking  in  the  seductive  credit  system,  will  prove  an  effec- 
tive panacea  for  these  self-evident  evils. 

As  an  American  citizen  the  negro  is  entitled  to  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  and  the  equal  protec- 
tion of  our  laws  for  the  safeguarding  of  these  inalienable 
rights.  The  regulation  of  suffrage  in  the  South,  as  well  as 
in  the  North,  is  and  always  will  be  determined  by  the  prin- 
ciple of  expediency.  But  none  but  the  most  prejudiced 
negro-hater,  who  oftentimes  goes  to  the  extreme  of  deny- 
ing that  any  black  man  can  have  a  white  soul,  would  con- 
trovert the  propositon  that  in  the  administration  of  quasi- 
public  utilities  and  courts  of  justice  the  negro  is  entitled  to 
the  fair  and  equal  protection  of  the  law.  Separate  coach 
laws  are  wise,  but  discriminations  in  service  are  wrong. 

If  "law  hath  her  seat  in  the  bosom  of  God  and  her  voice 
in  the  harmony  of  the  world,  all  things  paying  obeisance  to 
her,  the  greatest  as  not  exempt  from  her  power  and  the 
least  as  feeling  her  protecting  care,"  if 

"Sovereign  law,  the  State's  collected  will, 
Sits  empress,  crowning  good,  repressing  ill," 

then  the  meanest  negro  on  a  Southern  plantation  is  en- 
titled to  the  same  consideration  in  the  administration  of 
justice  as  the  proudest  scion  of  a  cultured  Cavalier. 

It  is,  indeed,  a  travesty  on  Anglo-Saxon  jurisprudence  to 
send  a  negro  to  the  penitentiary  for  a  term  of  eighteen 


WORK   OF  THE   COMMISSION   OF  UNIVERSITIES  25 

years  for  selling  a  gallon  of  whisky  in  violation  of  law  and 
at  the  same  time  allow  scores  of  white  murderers  to  go  un- 
punished, as  was  recently  stated  to  be  a  fact  by  the  Gov- 
ernor of  a  Southern  State.  Even  if  it  be  only  theoretically 
true  that  "all  people  are  created  free  and  equal,"  it  is  un- 
deniably true  that  he  is  entitled  to  the  equal  protection  of 
our  laws  and  to  the  rights  safeguarded  every  American 
citizen  under  the  beneficent  provisions  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States. 

If  I  may  use  the  eloquent  words  of  the  golden-tongued 
and  clear-visioned  Bishop  Charles  B.  Galloway,  "The  race 
problem  is  no  question  for  small  politicians,  but  for  broad- 
minded,  patriotic  statesmen.  It  is  not  for  non-resident 
theorists,  but  for  clear-visioned  humanitarians.  All  our 
dealings  with  the  negro  should  be  in  the  spirit  of  the  Man 
of  Galilee." 

The  task  that  is  now  confronting  this  Commission  on 
the  Race  Question,  which  is  composed  of  Southern  white 
men  who  are  representing  the  Universities  of  the  South, 
is  Atlean  in  its  magnitude  and  fraught  with  tremen- 
dous significance.  I  believe  that  ours  is  a  noble  mis- 
sion, that  of  discussing  the  ways  and  means  of  bettering 
the  religious,  educational,  hygienic,  economic,  and  civic  con- 
dition, of  an  inferior  race.  I  believe  that  by  preaching  the 
gospel  of  industrial  education  to  the  whites  and  negroes 
alike  we  can  develop  a  stronger  consciousness  of  social  re- 
sponsibility. I  believe  that  by  the  recognition  of  the  fact 
that  in  the  negro  are  to  be  found  the  essential  elements  of 
human  nature,  capable  of  conscious  evolution  through  edu- 
cation and  economic  and  religious  betterment,  we  will  be 
led  at  last  to  a  conception  of  a  world  unity,  whose  Author 
and  Finisher  is  God. 

Let  us,  then,  have  a  just  conception  of  the  dignity  of 
our  mission,  and  in  dreaming  of  our  ideals  for  the  improve- 
ment of  a  wonderful  race  let  each  of  us  resolve  in  his  heart 
of  hearts  with  the  sailor-poet : 

"I  am  tired  of  sailing  my  little  bark 

Par  inside  the  harbor  bar; 
I  want  to  be  out  where  the  great  ships  float, 
I  want  to  be  out  where  the  great  ones  are. 


26  THE    HUMAN   WAY 

And  I  am  not  content  to  abide 
Where  only  the  ripples  come  and  go; 

I  must  mount  the  crest  of  the  waves  outside, 
Or  breathless  plunge  into  the  trough  below. 

And  if  my  little  bark  should  prove  too  frail 
For  the  winds  that  sweep  the  wide  sea  o'er, 

Better  go  down  in  the  deathless  strife 

Than  drowse  to  death  by  the  sheltered  shore. 


THE  ECONOMIC  STATUS  OF  THE  NEGRO 

PROFESSOR   WILLIAM    M.   HUNLEY,  PH.D.,  UNIVERSITY  OF 

VIRGINIA 

I  SHALL  not  attempt  a  comprehensive  discussion  of  the 
economic  status  of  the  negro.  That  were  impossible  of 
accomplishment  in  the  brief  time  allotted  me.  Nor  shall  I 
weary  you  with  more  statistics  than  absolutely  necessary, 
chiefly  because  I  fear  there  may  be  many  present  who  agree 
with  0.  Henry  that  "statistics  is  the  lowest  form  of  in- 
formation." 

My  purpose  is  simply  to  sketch  in  outline,  from  the 
economic  point  of  view,  the  condition  of  the  negro  as  we  find 
him  to-day  and  to  suggest,  if  possible,  the  line  along  which 
we  should  think  and  work  in  our  efforts  to  improve  that 
condition. 

The  economic  point  of  view  is  the  distinctive  Southern 
attitude  in  the  matter  of  improvement  of  race  conditions. 
We  aim  to  elevate  the  negro  economically  in  the  belief  that, 
by  this  means,  he  will  become  a  better  citizen.  In  other  parts 
of  the  country  the  aim  seems  to  be  just  the  opposite — viz., 
to  give  the  negro  certain  social  and  political  advantages 
which  he  now  lacks  in  the  belief  that,  possessing  those  ad- 
vantages, he  will  attain  a  higher  level  of  efficiency  and  will 
become,  therefore,  a  better  citizen.  Thus  we  all  strive  to 
reach  the  same  end,  but  by  different  routes.  The  industrial 
route  seems  to  me  to  be  the  better. 


THE  ECONOMIC   STATUS  OF  THE   NEGRO  27 

The  present  economic  status  of  the  negro  shows  mar- 
velous advancement  and  holds  great  promise.  A  little 
pamphlet,  "Fifty  Years  of  Negro  Progress,"  by  Monroe  N. 
Work,  came  to  my  desk  as  I  was  preparing  this  paper.  The 
part  referring  to  certain  economic  phases  of  the  question  is 
so  much  better  than  anything  I  had  set  down  that  I  tore 
up  several  pages  of  notes  and  decided  to  take  the  liberty 
of  quoting  from  this  pamphlet  a  few  paragraphs : 

"In  18(fe  there  were  3,960,000  slaves  in  the  South.  Their 
value  was  approximately  $2,000,000,000,  or  about  $500  each. 
At  the  present  time  about  this  same  number  of  negroes  in 
the  South  are  engaged  in  various  gainful  occupations.  Their 
economic  value  is  approximately  $2,500  each,  and  their  total 
value  as  an  asset  of  the  South  is  ten  billion  dollars. 

"Fifty  years  ago,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  carpen- 
ters, blacksmiths,  and  masons,  practically  all  the  negroes 
in  the  South  were  agricultural  workers.  Freedom  gave 
them  an  opportunity  to  engage  in  all  sorts  of  occupations. 
The  census  reports  show  that  there  are  now  very  few,  if 
any,  pursuits  followed  by  whites  in  which  there  are  not 
some  negroes.  There  are  over  50,000  in  the  professions — 
teachers,  preachers,  laymen,  doctors,  dentists,  editors,  etc. 
There  are  some  30,000  engaged  in  business  of  various  sorts. 
Fifty  years  ago  there  were  in  the  South  no  negro  archi- 
tects, electricians,  photographers,  druggists,  pharmacists, 
dentists,  physicians,  or  surgeons ;  no  negro  owners  of  mines, 
cotton  mills,  dry  goods  stores,  insurance  companies,  publish- 
ing houses,  or  theaters;  no  wholesale  merchants,  no  news- 
papers or  editors,  no  undertakers,  no  real  estate  dealers, 
and  no  hospitals  managed  by  negroes.  In  1913  there  are 
negroes  managing  all  the  above  kinds  of  enterprises.  They 
are  editing  400  newspapers  and  periodicals.  They  own  100 
insurance  companies,  300  drug  stores,  and  more  than  20,000 
grocery  and  other  stores.  There  are  300,000  or  more 
negroes  working  in  the  trades  and  in  other  occupations 
requiring  skill — blacksmiths,  carpenters,  cabinetmakers, 
masons,  miners,  engineers,  iron  and  steel  workers,  factory 
operators,  printers,  lithographers,  engravers,  gold  and  silver 
workers,  tool  and  cutlery  makers,  etc. 


28  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

"Fifty  years  ago  it  was  unlawful  for  a  negro  to  be 
employed  in  the  postal  service;  for,  in  1810,  when  the  Post 
Office  Department  was  organized,  it  was  enacted  that,  under 
a  penalty  of  $50,  'No  other  than  a  free  white  person  shall 
be  employed  in  carrying  the  mail  of  the  United  States  either 
as  postrider  or  driver  of  a  carriage  carrying  the  mail.' 
There  are  now  more  than  3,950  colored  persons  in  the  gov- 
ernment postal  service.  Altogether  there  are  now  over 
22,440  negroes  in  the  employ  of  the  United  States  govern- 
ment. 

"Fifty  years  ago  it  was  unlawful  to  issue  a  patent  to  a 
slave,  and  the  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States  had 
just  ruled  that,  in  spite  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  patents 
might  still  be  issued  to  free  persons  of  color.  Since  that 
time  about  1,000  patents  have  been  granted  to  negroes. 
These  inventions  have  mostly  been  mechanical  appliances 
and  labor-saving  devices.  Some  of  the  things  which  negroes 
have  invented  during  the  past  year  are  a  telephone  register, 
a  hydraulic  scrubbing  brush,  a  weight  motor  for  running 
machinery,  aeroplanes,  an  automatic  car  switch,  and  an 
automatic  feed  attachment  for  adding  machines. 

"In  1863  it  was  not  in  the  imagination  of  the  most 
optimistic  that,  within  fifty  years,  negroes  would  be  mak- 
ing good  in  the  field  of  finance,  be  receiving  ratings  in  the 
financial  world,  or  be  successful  operators  of  banks.  When 
in  1888  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  was  asked  to  grant  a 
charter  for  a  negro  bank,  the  request  was  at  first  treated  as 
a  joke.  There  are  now  twelve  negro  banks  in  that  State 
and  sixty-four  in  the  entire  country.  They  are  capitalized 
at  about  $1,600,000.  They  do  an  annual  business  of  about 
$20,000,000.  One  of  the  strongest  of  these  banks,  the 
Alabama  Penny  Savings  Bank,  of  Birmingham,  at  the  close 
of  business  August  20,  1912,  had  resources  amounting  to 
$477,000." 

In  concluding  a  most  interesting  and  stimulating  survey, 
the  author  says: 

"During  the  past  fifty  years  there  has  been  a  rapid 
increase  in  the  wealth  of  the  negroes  of  the  South.  This 
increase  has  been  especially  marked  in  the  past  ten  years, 


THE  ECONOMIC   STATUS   OF  THE   NEGRO  29 

during  which  time  the  value  of  domestic  animals  which  they 
own  increased  from  $85,216,337  to  $177,273,785,  or  107  per 
cent;  poultry  from  $3,788,792  to  $5,113,756,  or  35  per  cent; 
implements  and  machinery  from  $18,586,225  to  $36,861,418, 
or  98  per  cent;  land  and  buildings  from  $69,636,420  to 
$273,501,665,  or  293  per  cent. 

"In  1863  the  total  wealth  of  the  negroes  of  this  country 
was  about  $20,000,000.  Now  their  total  wealth  is  over 
$700,000,000.  No  other  emancipated  people  have  made  so 
great  a  progress  in  so  short  a  time.  The  Russian  serfs  were 
emancipated  in  1861.  Fifty  years  later,  it  was  found  that 
14,000,000  of  them  had  accumulated  about  $500,000,000 
worth  of  property,  or  about  $36  per  capita,  an  average  of 
$200  per  family.  Fifty  years  after  their  emancipation  only 
about  30  per  cent  of  the  Russian  peasants  were  able  to  read 
and  write.  After  fifty  years  of  freedom  the  ten  million 
negroes  in  the  United  States  have  accumulated  over  $700,- 
000,000  worth  of  property,  or  about  $70  per  capita,  which  is 
an  average  of  $350  per  family.  After  fifty  years  of  freedom 
70  per  cent  of  them  have  acquired  some  education  in 
books." 

Such  a  picture  as  that  is  surely  good  cause  for  pride  and 
an  eloquent  assurance  as  to  the  future. 

The  most  remarkable  strides  have  been  made  in  agri- 
cultural pursuits.  Professor  DeLoach  will  show  you,  from 
the  wealth  of  his  knowledge  of  the  subject,  how  the  negro 
farmer  has  advanced  and  is  advancing,  and  he  will  no  doubt 
point  out  how  we  may  help  this  great  development.  It  will 
suffice  for  me  to  call  your  attention  to  certain  facts  and 
figures  contained  in  the  1910  census  reports.  According  to 
these  reports,  there  are  in  the  South  approximately  two  and 
one-third  million  negro  farm  workers.  Of  these,  about  one 
and  one-third  million  are  farm  laborers  and  890,141  are 
farmers  owning  or  renting  their  farms.  T.  J.  Jones  points 
out  that  it  is  significant  of  the  interest  of  the  colored  race 
in  farming  that,  while  the  colored  population  increased  only 
10  per  cent,  the  colored  farmers  increased  20  per  cent.  The 
white  population,  on  the  other  hand,  with  an  increase  of 
24.4  per  cent,  added  to  their  farmers  only  18  per  cent. 


30  THE    HUMAN    WAY 

Furthermore,  colored  farm  owners  increased  in  every 
Southern  State.  Even  in  Louisiana,  where  colored  farmers 
decreased,  colored  owners  increased  from  9,378  in  1900 
to  10,725  in  1910.  The  astounding  advance  of  the  negro  in 
fifty  years  is  strikingly  seen  in  the  fact  that  in  Virginia 
67  per  cent  of  the  colored  farmers  own  their  farms.  Mr. 
Jones  declares  that,  taking  colored  owners,  tenants,  and 
laborers  together,  it  may  be  conservatively  estimated  that 
negro  labor  cultivates  an  approximate  area  of  100,000,000 
acres. 

To  sum  up  his  analysis  of  the  1910  Census,  even  at 
the  risk  of  having  you  think  I  have  forgotten  my  tentative 
promise  about  quoting  statistics: 

"Negro  farm  laborers  and  negro  farmers  of  the  South 
cultivate  farms  whose  area  is  approximately  100,000,000 
acres.  Negro  farmers  cultivate  42,500,000  acres  of  South- 
ern land.  Forty  per  cent  of  all  agricultural  workers  in  the 
South  are  negroes.  There  are  in  the  South  approximately 
two  and  a  third  million  negro  agricultural  workers,  of  whom 
almost  one  and  a  half  million  are  farm  laborers  and  890,000 
are  farmers  owning  or  renting  their  farms.  Of  the  890,000 
negro  farmers  in  the  South,  218,000,  or  25  per  cent,  are 
owners.  Negro  farm  owners  of  the  South  own  and  cultivate 
15,702,579  acres  which  they  have  acquired  in  less  than  fifty 
years.  Add  to  this  sum  the  land  owned  by  the  negroes  of 
the  North,  and  the  total  land  ownership  of  the  negroes  of 
the  United  States  undoubtedly  aggregated  20,000,000  acres 
in  1910.  The  total  value  of  land  and  buildings  on  farms 
owned  or  rented  by  the  colored  farmers  of  the  South  is 
almost  a  billion  dollars." 

The  three  archenemies  of  Southern  farm  life,  as  Pro- 
fessor Brough  so  well  insists,  are  the  tenant  system  in 
various  guises,  the  one  crop  system,  and  rural  isolation.  To 
these  he  would  add  the  abuse  of  the  credit  system.  As 
well  we  know,  all  of  these  bear  far  more  heavily  upon  the 
negro  than  upon  the  white  man. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  typical  negro  is  not  a  servant, 
but  a  farmer.  He  has  a  greater  disposition  to  stay  on  the 
farm  than  has  the  white  man.  One  writer  states  that  the 


THE  ECONOMIC   STATUS   OF  THE    NEGRO  31 

negro  is  actually  land-hungry.  Those  of  you  who  are 
familiar  with  the  sacrifices  the  negro  will  make  to  buy  land, 
the  heroism  and  splendid  spirit  he  displays  in  his  effort  to 
win  a  home  of  his  own,  will  perhaps  not  marvel  at  the  won- 
derful growth  of  the  land-owning  class  among  the  colored 
race.  And  it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  especially  in  the  light 
of  certain  news  items  that  have  reached  us  about  practices 
in  many  other  parts  of  the  country,  that  in  the  South  there 
is  practically  no  opposition  to  the  negro  buying  land.  There 
are  certain  restrictions  imposed  in  many  cities,  to  be  sure, 
but  the  big  fact  is  that  practically  all  over  the  South  the 
negro  is  not  hampered  in  his  efforts  to  own  a  farm. 

Marvelous  development  of  business  interests  among 
negroes  continues  in  the  South  as  well  as  in  the  North.  They 
have  made  tremendous  strides  in  many  lines.  Negro  drug- 
gists, merchants,  undertakers,  bankers,  coal  dealers,  haber- 
dashers, insurance  and  real  estate  agents,  barbers,  harness 
makers,  lawyers,  hotel  and  restaurant  proprietors,  poultry 
dealers,  publishers,  miners,  photographers,  and  laundrymen 
have  increased  in  number  and  efficiency  in  the  last  decade 
to  a  surprising  degree.  In  business,  as  in  farming,  the 
negro  in  the  South  in  the  main  encounters  no  discourage- 
ment on  the  part  of  his  white  neighbor.  On  the  contrary,  in 
many  instances  negro  merchants  serve  a  larger  number  of 
white  than  of  negro  patrons.  A  notable  instance  is  seen  in 
Williamsburg,  Va.,  where  one  of  the  leading  merchants  of 
the  city  is  a  negro  the  best  part  of  whose  patronage  is 
drawn  from  white  people.  In  Charlottesville  negro  barbers, 
mechanics,  and  carpenters  are  preferred  to  white  artisans 
by  a  large  part  of  the  white  population. 

In  the  banking  business,  as  already  indicated,  the  negro 
has  moved  ahead  with  mighty  strides  since  the  establish- 
ment of  the  first  negro  bank  in  1888.  A  friend  of  mine  told 
me  the  other  day  a  story  about  a  negro  banker  which  serves 
to  emphasize  the  change  that  has  taken  place  in  this  phase 
of  the  economic  advance  of  the  race,  for  I  am  quite  sure 
that,  if  it  ever  was  true,  it  could  not  happen  again:  A 
negro  had  been  depositing  his  funds  at  a  bank  run  by 
negroes.  After  a  time  he  went  to  the  bank  and  asked  for  all 


32  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

his  balance.  He  was  informed,  so  the  story  goes,  that  he 
had  no  balance.  When  he  inquired  how  that  was,  he  was 
told  that  the  "interest  had  ate  it  all  up."  The  distrust  of 
banks  on  the  part  of  many  negroes  is  rapidly  passing  away. 
In  small  towns  all  over  the  South  it  is  found  that  negroes 
are  good  patrons  of  the  banks.  There  are  also  numerous 
building  and  loan  associations  that  do  a  tremendous  business 
with  negroes.  Prosperous  negro  banks  are  conducted  in 
many  Southern  States,  notably  in  Alabama,  Florida, 
Georgia,  Mississippi,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Texas, 
and  Virginia. 

The  so-called  "group  economy"  is  proving  an  important 
factor  in  the  economic  progress  of  the  negro.  In  some 
trades  and  in  some  kinds  of  business  the  negro  seems  to  be 
passing  away,  but  on  close  examination  of  conditions  it  is 
found  that  in  these  particulars  he  is  not  serving  white 
people  as  extensively  as  formerly,  but  he  is  being  patronized 
by  members  of  his  own  race.  Negro  barbers,  druggists, 
merchants,  lawyers,  dentists,  and  builders  who  are  patron- 
ized exclusively  by  members  of  their  own  race  are  increasing 
constantly.  In  every  town  and  city  there  are  prosperous 
negro  restaurants  where  there  were  none  a  few  years  ago. 
This  indicates  a  great  increase  in  wealth  and  general  pros- 
perity among  the  mass  of  negroes  in  the  cities  and  towns, 
else  they  could  not  afford  to  support  these  dealers  and  pro- 
fessional men.  It  indicates  another  and,  perhaps,  more 
important  thing — namely,  race  pride.  Where  negro  mer- 
chants, for  example,  are  to  be  found,  negroes  invariably 
patronize  them  rather  than  white  merchants. 

A  very  important  phase  of  the  question  of  the  economic 
status  of  the  negro  is,  to  my  mind,  the  attitude  of  trade- 
unions  toward  the  negro.  Dr.  F.  E.  Wolfe,  of  Colby  College, 
has  written  a  valuable  monograph,  recently  published,  called 
"Admission  to  Trade-Unions."  One  chapter  of  this  volume 
is  devoted  to  the  question  of  the  admission  of  negroes. 

"The  Federation  of  Labor,"  Dr.  Wolfe  says,  "has  not 
only  discouraged  the  exclusion  of  negroes,  but  it  has  con- 
tinuously promoted  organizations  among  negroes  by  posi- 
tive measures." 


THE  ECONOMIC   STATUS  OF  THE   NEGRO  33 

The  policy  of  the  Federation  now  consists  of  two  parts, 
he  says.  First,  the  substantial  encouragement  of  the  forma- 
tion of  separate  unions  for  colored  laborers  in  localities 
where  they  may  not  otherwise  become  organized;  and,  sec- 
ond, the  advocacy  in  speech  and  publications  of  the  admis- 
sion of  negroes,  subject  to  the  final  discretion  of  individual 
national  unions. 

In  another  place  Dr.  Wolfe  says:  "Negroes  are  en- 
gaged in  considerable  numbers  as  tobacco  workers,  barbers, 
team  drivers,  miners,  sailors,  musicians,  hotel  and  res- 
taurant employees,  foundry  workers,  pavers,  hod  carriers, 
and  as  workers  in  certain  of  the  building  trades,  particu- 
larly as  cement  workers,  plasterers,  slate  and  tile  roofers, 
wood,  wire,  and  metal  lathers,  and  metal  workers.  The 
national  unions  within  these  trades  .  .  .  have  actively 
approved  and  substantially  supported  the  admission  and 
organization  of  negroes." 

Many  unions,  he  says,  have  approved  of  the  organization 
of  negroes  by  admitting  them  to  membership  in  mixed  as 
well  as  in  separate  local  unions. 

"Mixed  unions,"  he  continues,  "may  usually  be  found  in 
any  national  union  which  charters  separate  negro  unions, 
for  the  national  pact  binds  each  local  union  to  accept  the 
transferred  members  of  another  local  union." 

Dr.  Wolfe  also  points  out  that  only  about  twelve  national 
unions,  including  the  Locomotive  Engineers,  the  Locomotive 
Firemen,  the  Switchmen,  the  Maintenance-of-Way  Em- 
ployees, the  Wire  Weavers,  the  Railroad  Trainmen,  the 
Railway  Carmen,  the  Railway  Clerks,  and  the  Railway  and 
Commercial  Telegraphers,  persist  in  regarding  negroes  as 
ineligible  for  membership;  but  the  number  of  negroes  en- 
gaged in  these  occupations  is  small. 

This  attitude  of  trade-unions  is  an  important  considera- 
tion from  the  point  of  view  of  the  negro's  economic  oppor- 
tunity, which,  of  course,  is  a  factor  in  his  economic  status. 

From  this  meager  survey  it  will  be  seen,  I  think,  that 
the  economic  status  of  the  negro  to-day  is  on  a  solid  basis 
and  justifies  high  hope  for  the  future.  Certainly  no  "divina- 
tion of  statistics"  could  have  foretold  what  we  see  to-day 


34  THE    HUMAN   WAY 

as  we  go  about  the  South.  But  what  of  the  great  mass  of 
negroes?  Are  they  really  better  off  now  than  they  were 
fifty  years  ago?  Are  they  improving  economically?  What 
can  we  do  to  help  them? 

In  considering  these  questions  it  is  well  to  bear  in  mind 
what  Dr.  Dillard  emphasizes  as  a  most  important  fact — 
namely,  that  the  great  mass  of  the  negro  population  is  in 
the  South  to  stay  for  an  indefinite  period.  In  its  last 
analysis,  the  negro  problem  is  our  problem.  It  is  essentially 
a  Southern  problem.  Therefore,  what  should  we  do  to  help 
along  the  economic  improvement  of  the  vast  body  of 
negroes?  Any  lasting  improvement  in  the  great  mass  must 
be  made,  not  only  with  sympathy,  but  with  the  cooperation 
of  the  thoughtful  people  of  the  South. 

In  the  first  place,  we  should  work  to  eradicate  certain 
evils,  already  indicated,  as  the  tenant  and  allied  systems. 
We  must  encourage  in  every  reasonable  way  the  negro 
farmer,  not  only  to  stay  on  the  farm,  but  to  own  the  land, 
or  part  of  the  land,  that  he  tills.  In  a  recent  communica- 
tion Dr.  John  Lee  Coulter  expressed  the  point  I  wish  to 
make  very  well  when  he  said : 

"The  salvation  of  the  South  demands  the  cultivation  of 
the  negro.  I  use  the  word  'cultivation'  here  in  the  same 
sense  that  I  would  use  it  in  agriculture.  The  cultivation  of 
the  morning-glory  means  the  training  of  the  plant  and 
bringing  it  up  into  the  most  useful  form.  The  cultivation 
of  the  negro  means  training  the  negro  to  be  a  useful  person. 
I  believe  that  the  greatest  opportunity  presents  itself  in  the 
South  because  it  is  very  largely  rural.  I  think  that  the 
negro  should  be  taught  to  farm  better.  He  should  be  forced 
to  do  things  right.  I  personally  believe  in  very  stringent 
and,  it  may  be,  very  severe  methods  when  necessary  to  force 
people  to  do  things  right.  In  the  North  Central  States  I 
have  in  the  past  advocated  the  strictest  kinds  of  vagrancy 
laws,  and  would  not  hesitate  to  force  either  white  men  or 
negroes  to  serve  their  time  sawing  wood,  breaking  stones, 
building  roads,  or  otherwise  serving  the  community  if  they 
refuse  to  work  as  individuals,  either  for  themselves  or  for 
other  individuals.  The  fact  that  a  man  has  $2  in  his  pocket 


THE  ECONOMIC   STATUS   OP  THE   NEGRO  35 

does  not  mean  that  he  cannot  be  a  vagrant.  If  he  is  not 
employed  and  becomes  an  eyesore  in  hanging  around  gen- 
erally, he  should  be  forced  to  work  for  the  community 
as  a  whole  unless  there  are  such  circumstances  as  physical 
defect,  old  age,  or  other  good  reason." 

Another  thing  we  can  do,  perhaps,  as  Professor  Scroggs 
has  said,  is  to  increase  the  negro's  wants.  When  his  wants 
are  few  they  are  quickly  satisfied.  When  that  has  been 
accomplished  the  average  negro  is  no  "busy  bee"  until  his 
wants  are  again  in  the  ascendency.  By  increasing  his  wants 
we  shall  greatly  increase  his  economic  value  to  himself  and 
to  the  country. 

One  other  suggestion  occurs  to  me  in  this  connection.  It 
relates  to  the  question  of  the  negro  and  public  health.  The 
economic  status  of  the  negro  has  improved  in  a  wonderful 
way,  but  the  indifference  of  the  average  negro  to  the  laws 
of  public  health  and  hygiene  costs  the  South  millions  of 
dollars'  and  makes  the  negro  far  less  efficient  than  he  would 
otherwise  be.  We  should,  in  every  way  possible,  endeavor 
to  bring  the  negro  to  a  realization  of  the  value  of  observing 
the  laws  of  sanitation  and  hygiene. 

We  must  not  be  deceived  by  statistics.  The  negro  as  a 
race  has  made  vast  strides  in  economic  betterment  in  the 
last  fifty  years — in  the  last  decade,  for  that  matter;  but 
what  of  the  great  mass  of  negroes?  Have  they  improved? 
Are  they  really  improving?  I  firmly  believe  they  are,  slowly 
but  surely.  Our  duty  is  to  urge  the  thoughtful  people  of  the 
South  to  take  an  active  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  negro, 
not  only  for  the  good  of  the  negro,  but  for  the  continued 
prosperity  and  well-being  of  our  country. 


36  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

THE  NEGRO  AS  A  FARMER 

PROFESSOR  J.  H.  DE  LOACH,  PH.D.,  UNIVERSITY  OF  GEORGIA 

ONLY  a  few  days  ago  I  was  discussing  the  negro  prob- 
lem with  a  distinguished  physician  of  one  of  our  larger 
cities  in  Georgia,  and  I  could  not  but  take  careful  note  of 
his  remark  that  "in  our  courts  the  negro  population  never 
gets  justice."  Whether  this  is  literally  true  or  not,  it  is 
generally  true.  Since  hearing  that  remark,  I  have  been 
trying  to  think  whether  the  negro  gets  justice  in  any  other 
line  any  more  than  he  does  in  the  courts  of  justice,  and  I 
am  about  to  conclude  that  the  courts  are  no  exception  in  the 
matter  of  injustice. 

Where  does  the  negro  stand  as  a  farmer,  and  does  he  get 
justice  in  the  matter  of  training  for  farm  life?  Is  the  white 
population  cooperating  with  him  in  trying  to  make  him  a 
better  farmer  in  order  that  he  may  help  build  up  this  great 
Southland  of  ours  instead  of  letting  him  drift  along  and 
slowly  but  surely  destroy,  or  help  destroy,  the  South's  and 
the  world's  greatest  asset,  the  soil? 

We  have  been  too  long  recognizing  the  fact  that  to  per- 
mit ignorance  to  reign  supreme  on  our  farms  is  to  deprive 
future  generations  of  a  normally  rich  soil,  and  therefore  of 
a  normal  supply  of  food  and  clothing.  We  have  been  far 
too  long  recognizing  the  fact  that  intelligence  applied  to  the 
soil  and  the  farm  will  bring  larger  dividends  than  when 
applied  anywhere  else;  and  whether  we  are  landowners 
or  tenants,  we  should  aid  in  the  great  movement,  world- 
wide in  its  application,  to  maintain  and  conserve  the  soil. 

But  we  may  ask  ourselves  this  question :  Does  the  negro 
get  his  share  of  training  along  this  line?  and,  if  so,  is  he 
capable  of  using  his  education  to  the  best  advantage?  Can 
we  establish  the  fact  that  it  pays  in  dollars  and  cents,  as 
well  as  otherwise,  to  help  the  negro  understand  the  laws  of 
the  soil  and  the  best  farm  practices?  If  so,  we  must  then 
see  just  why  we  are  not  doing  so.  Is  the  negro  so  con- 
stituted that  he  cannot  use  profitably  such  information? 
These  are  questions  that  should  concern  anyone  interested 


THE   NEGRO  AS  A  FARMER  37 

in  sociology  and  the  negro  problem  in  the  South.  The  an- 
swer to  them  may  help  to  solve  not  only  the  negro  problem 
itself,  but  many  other  problems  connected  with  the  farm  as 
well. 

Several  years  ago  I  was  invited  to  address  a  negro 
farmers'  conference,  and  after  I  had  finished  my  talk  the 
negroes  were  kind  enough  to  make  me  a  life  member  of 
the  conference.  It  has  been  my  great  pleasure  since  that 
time  to  attend  these  annual  conferences  and  take  special 
note  of  the  progress  of  the  negroes  who  are  active  members 
of  the  conference.  The  negroes  themselves  have  gotten  to- 
gether the  following  facts  with  reference  to  the  membership, 
and  the  information  has  interested  me  very  much : 

FACTS  CULLED  FROM  THE  FARMERS'  CONFERENCE 

Counties  represented   8 

Towns  and  villages  represented 20 

Acres  of  land  owned  by  the  members  6,245 

Value  of  land $183,916 

This  is  not  a  very  large  conference;  yet  it  represents 
more  real  estate  and  money  value  than  one  would  at  first 
think,  and  all  this  belongs  to  negroes.  There  are  a  great 
many  more  renters  and  laborers  than  landowners  in  the 
conference,  and  these  have  been  as  greatly  helped  by  the 
conferences  as  the  landowners  themselves. 

There  is  a  feature  of  these  conferences  that  I  have 
studied  very  much  in  order  to  get  statistical  information  on 
the  negroes'  use  and  application  of  information  about  agri- 
culture. I  have  begun  within  the  last  few  years  to  question 
the  members  on  their  progress  in  farming  since  I  myself 
became  a  member,  and  the  answers  have  been  more  than 
surprising.  In  almost  every  individual  instance  there  has 
been  great  improvement  in  the  farms  represented  at  the 
meetings.  Some  have  increased  their  corn  yield  only  two 
or  three  bushels  per  acre;  others  have  increased  about  five 
or  ten  bushels;  while  one  young  farmer,  a  very  intelligent 
negro,  raised  his  yield  on  seven  acres  of  good  land  from  an 
average  of  eight  or  nine  bushels  to  more  than  fifty  bushels 
per  acre. 

443956 


38  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

At  this  time  it  may  be  well  to  call  attention  to  just  what 
kind  of  information  I  gave  them  and  what  kind  other  ex- 
perts at  the  meeting  gave  them.  I  had  charts  and  showed 
the  effects  of  deep  plowing  and  just  how  decaying  vegetable 
matter  would  help  to  increase  the  yield  of  any  farm  crop. 
In  fact,  I  spent  much  time  telling  in  simple  language  the 
laws  under  which  plants  were  striving  to  make  a  living 
for  themselves  and  for  us,  especially  plants  that  form  our 
ordinary  field  crops,  and  they  understood  and  heeded  the 
messages.  I  went  on  to  show  what  plant  food  was,  how 
the  plants  ate  it,  and  that  if  our  plants  were  small  they  were 
starving.  They  caught  the  idea  and  applied  it. 

I  went  further  than  this,  and  showed  them  some  simple 
lessons  in  farm  economy.  I  pointed  out  how  we  may  put 
only  two  or  three  hundred  pounds  more  per  acre  of  these 
useful  plant  foods  and  often  reap  three  times  the  cost 
to  pay  for  them.  For  instance,  I  have  pointed  out  how  easy 
it  would  be  to  apply  four  hundred  pounds  of  a  high-grade 
fertilizer  per  acre  instead  of  two  hundred  pounds.  The 
four  hundred  pounds  would  cost  $5  instead  of  $2.50,  the 
cost  of  the  two  hundred  pounds.  But  the  land  on  which 
the  four  hundred  pounds  were  applied  would  yield  $8  worth 
of  corn  more  to  the  acre  than  where  only  two  hundred  were 
applied,  and  would  give  even  greater  rewards  relatively 
for  cotton  than  for  corn.  They  understood,  and  would 
after  the  second  summer  ask  intelligent  questions  about  fer- 
tilizers and  nitrate  of  soda,  and  try  to  learn  how  the  fer- 
tilizers should  be  applied  to  the  land  and  how  the  crop 
could  best  be  cultivated.  When  they  were  told,  they  under- 
stood, for  the  results  prove  that  they  understood. 

I  have  had  occasion  to  look  up  some  general  statistics 
on  the  black  versus  the  white  counties  in  Georgia,  from  the 
standpoint  of  crop  yields.  It  is  interesting  to  learn  that 
in  the  counties  generally,  though  not  always,  where  the  ma- 
jority of  landowners  are  negroes  the  farm  crop  yields  per 
acre  are  greater  than  in  counties  where  the  majority  of 
landowners  are  whites.  Where  the  negroes  are  mostly 
tenants,  the  crop  yields  are  not  so  high  as  where  they  own 
their  own  land.  Some  figures  can  be  cited  here: 


THE   NEGRO  AS  A  FARMER  39 

In  Glynn  County,  Ga.,  there  were  155  farms  in  1910. 
The  whites  owned  51  and  the  negroes  99  of  these,  while  five 
were  owned  by  foreigners.  The  yield  of  corn  in  that  county 
was  over  18  bushels,  and  cotton  almost  three-fourths  of  a 
bale  per  acre.  In  Oglethorpe  County  there  were  622  farms, 
498  of  which  were  owned  by  whites,  120  by  negroes,  and 
the  remaining  four  by  foreigners.  The  yield  of  corn  in  Ogle- 
thrope  was  a  little  more  than  ten  bushels  and  of  cotton  one- 
third  of  a  bale  to  the  acre.  Most  of  the  negroes  in  Ogle- 
thorpe County  are  tenants,  while  the  negro  farmers  in 
Glynn  own  their  land.  It  is  very  hard  to  find  out  just  what 
proportion  of  farm  lands  in  these  two  counties  is  owned  by 
negroes  and  what  proportion  owned  by  whites.  But  such  a 
condition  could  hardly  exist  unless  there  was  some  differ- 
ence in  the  thriftiness  of  the  farmers  themselves. 

It  has  been  pretty  well  established  by  the  investigations 
of  Professor  R.  P.  Brooks,  of  the  University  of  Georgia,  that 
negroes  are  far  thriftier  and  more  reliable  where  they  are 
more  evenly  disseminated  among  the  whites  than  where 
they  are  permitted  to  congregate  in  large  numbers.  In  the 
former  case  they  get  the  impressions  of  thriftiness  among 
their  white  neighbors  often,  and  are  made  better  farmers. 

As  a  general  thing  negroes  are  easily  taught  and  can 
be  led  to  adopt  any  kind  of  information  in  their  practices 
if  the  teacher  is  in  sympathy  with  them  and  understands 
them.  A  great  many  of  them  are  quite  foolish  in  their  atti- 
tude toward  the  white  race,  but  we  are  so  inclined  to  con- 
demn them  as  a  race  that  we  can  hardly  blame  them.  What 
they  need  is  help,  and  it  is  incumbent  upon  those  who  either 
employ  them  or  live  as  neighbors  to  them  to  help  them. 

In  most  of  the  Southern  States  farmers'  institutes  are 
authorized  and  held  in  different  parts  of  the  several  States 
for  the  discussion  by  experts  of  local  farm  problems,  such 
as  fertilizers,  field  crops,  crop  rotation,  farm  management, 
and  the  like.  These  institutes  are  intended  mostly,  if  not 
altogether,  for  white  farmers.  The  negroes  as  a  general 
thing  are  not  considered.  In  1910  there  were  in  Georgia 
168,083  white  and  122,559  negro  farmers.  Suppose  we  edu- 
cate the  white  farmers  to  farm  according  to  science  and 


40  THE    HUMAN   WAY 

they  get  the  best  results  from  the  land,  we  are  still  losing 
very  rapidly  if  almost  one-half  of  the  farm  population  on 
account  of  ignorance  is  destroying  the  good  soils  of  the 
State  by  letting  them  wash  into  the  rivers  and  on  into  the 
ocean.  A  farmer  can  save  the  land  or  waste  it.  He  can 
waste  more  in  one  generation  by  failing  to  apply  proper 
methods  than  he  can  build  up  in  ten  generations.  We  can 
conservatively  say  that  this  large  negro  population  of 
Georgia  is  wasting  at  least  $300,000,000  a  year  from  our 
Georgia  soils  by  failing  to  farm  in  such  a  way  as  to  keep 
the  soils  where  they  are.  The  ignorance  of  the  negro  not 
only  hinders  him  from  making  progress,  but  is  actually 
taking  the  landowners  backward  in  this  great  loss  of  soil. 

The  all-important  question  is,  What  are  we  to  do  about 
it?  We  shall  be  forced  sooner  or  later  to  reach  out  and 
help  the  negro  to  improve  his  methods  of  farming.  We  shall 
have  to  do  this  in  self-defense,  even  if  we  persist  in  refusing 
the  negro  aid  for  his  own  good. 

The  practical  work  of  helping  the  negro  along  the  line 
of  agriculture,  it  seems  to  me,  will  have  to  commence  with 
simple  lessons  of  extension  work  along  the  same  line  that 
we  are  holding  Farmers'  Institutes.  Meetings  must  be  given 
primarily  for  the  negro,  and  we  shall  have  to  go  into  his 
own  camp,  by  invitation,  of  course,  and  help  him  with  his 
problems.  We  must  have  him  realize  that  we  wish  him 
prosperity  and  are  willing  to  help  him  attain  greater  effi- 
ciency. It  is  a  long  way  from  here  and  now  to  universal 
prosperity,  and  one  generation  need  not  expect  to  do  more 
than  help  get  any  great  movement  started ;  but  from  my  own 
experience,  I  must  say  that  I  believe  we  have  too  long 
neglected  to  help  this  struggling  people  to  greater  efficiency. 
Our  methods  almost  seem  to  indicate  that  we  have  climbed 
up  on  the  lower  race  instead  of  having  lent  a  helping  hand 
during  his  long  period  of  adversity,  not  realizing  ourselves 
that  we  have  done  the  most  costly  thing  and  gotten  the 
poorest  results. 


THE  NEGRO  WORKING  OUT  HIS  OWN   SALVATION         41 

THE  NEGRO  WORKING  OUT  HIS  OWN  SALVATION 

PROFESSOR   E.    C.    BRANSON,   A.M.,   PRESIDENT   STATE   NORMAL 
SCHOOL,  ATHENS,  GA. 

NEGRO  FARM  OWNERSHIP :     THE  FACTS  AND  THEIR 
SIGNIFICANCE 

/.  The  Facts 

1.  AT  present  the  drift  of  negro  population  in  the  South 
is  distinctly  countryward. 

During  the  last  census  period  our  negro  population  in 
general  increased  barely  10  per  cent,  but  our  negro  farm 
population  increased  more  than  20  per  cent.  Just  the  re- 
verse tendency  is  true  among  the  whites  of  every  Southern 
State  except  Kentucky. 

In  1910  in  the  South  the  ratio  of  negro  farm  workers 
runs  far  ahead  of  negro  population  in  general.  For  in- 
stance, in  South  Carolina  the  negroes  are  55  per  cent  of  the 
population,  but  68  per  cent  of  the  farm  workers.  In  Geor- 
gia they  are  45  per  cent  of  the  population,  but  53  per  cent 
of  the  farm  workers ;  in  Alabama  42  per  cent  of  the  popu- 
lation, but  54  per  cent  of  the  farm  workers;  in  Louisiana 
43  per  cent  of  the  population,  but  64  per  cent  of  the  farm 
workers;  in  Mississippi  66  per  cent  of  the  population,  but 
69  per  cent  of  the  farm  workers.  The  negroes  are  30  per 
cent  of  our  Southern  population,  but  they  are  40  per  cent 
of  all  the  persons  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits. 

In  Mississippi  during  the  last  census  period  negro  farm- 
ers increased  at  a  rate  nearly  two  and  a  half  times  greater 
than  the  rate  of  increase  for  negro  population  in  general, 
and  in  Georgia  at  a  rate  nearly  three  and  a  half  times 
greater. 

In  every  State  of  the  South  except  Arkansas  and  Okla- 
homa the  negro  is  a  dwindling  ratio  of  population  in  gen- 
eral, but  he  is  an  increasing  ratio  of  population  in  the  farm 
regions,  Louisiana  alone  excepted. 


42  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

2.  On  the  other  hand,  the  negro  is  a  decreasing  ratio 
of  population  in  the  cities  of  the  South. 

In  1900  thirty-three  Southern  cities,  each  containing 
twenty-five  thousand  or  more  inhabitants,  had  a  negro  pop- 
ulation amounting  to  10  per  cent  or  more.  During  the 
following  census  period  in  all  of  these  cities,  except  Fort 
Worth,  negro  population  lagged  behind  the  rates  of  white 
increase — in  some  of  them  far  behind;  as,  for  instance,  in 
Atlanta  and  Macon.  In  others  there  was  an  actual  loss  of 
negro  population. 

Between  1865  and  1880  the  towns  and  cities  of  the 
South  seemed  in  fair  way  of  being  overrun  and  overwhelmed 
by  the  negroes.  In  1910  it  becomes  evident  that  the  negro 
is  resisting  the  lure  of  city  life  and  sticking  to  the  farm 
better  than  the  Southern  white  man. 

Some  fifty  thousand  negroes  are  engaged  in  the  various 
professions,  mainly  teaching,  preaching,  medicine,  and  law; 
some  thirty  thousand  more  are  engaged  in  various  business 
enterprises — some  of  them  with  conspicuous  success  and 
distinction.  But  here,  all  told,  are  fewer  than  a  hundred 
thousand  upward-moving  negroes. 

On  the  other  hand,  two  and  a  third  million  negroes  are 
engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits  as  day  laborers,  tenants, 
and  owners.  With  their  families,  they  represent  more  than 
four-fifths  of  their  race  in  the  South,  and  they  cultivate  a 
hundred  million  acres  of  our  farm  land,  or  two-thirds  of 
our  total  improved  acreage. 

3.  The  negro,  then,  is  wisely  choosing  or  blindly  mov- 
ing to  work  out  his  own  salvation  as  a  race,  not  in  city  but 
in  country  civilization. 

In  the  farm  regions  he  is  achieving  a  new  economic 
status.  He  is  rapidly  rising  out  of  farm  tenancy  into  farm 
ownership.  In  a  large  way  he  is  coming  to  be  a  landed 
proprietor.  During  their  first  twenty  years  of  freedom  the 
negroes  made  little  headway  in  land  ownership.  They  were 
absorbed  either  in  politics  or  in  religion,  and  this  is  par- 
ticularly true  of  the  leaders.  The  constructive  achievements 
of  the  race  were  most  marked  in  the  direction  of  church- 
building  and  church  organizations. 


THE   NEGRO   WORKING  OUT  HIS  OWN   SALVATION         43 

But  during  the  last  thirty  years  the  negroes  of  the  South 
have  come  to  feel  that  bank  books  and  barns  are  more  im- 
portant than  ballot  boxes.  At  all  events  they  appear  in  the 
1910  census  not  as  farm  workers  or  farm  tenants  merely, 
but  as  farm  owners  in  large  numbers. 

Nearly  one-fourth  of  all  the  negro  farmers  in  the  South 
own  the  farms  they  cultivate.  In  Florida  they  own  nearly 
one-half  of  them,  in  Kentucky  and  Oklahoma  more  than 
one-half  of  them,  in  Maryland  and  Virginia  more  than  three- 
fifths  of  them,  and  in  West  Virginia  nearly  four-fifths 
of  them.  In  less  than  fifty  years  the  negro  has  ac- 
quired possession  of  twenty  million  acres  of  farm  land. 
Altogether  his  farm  properties  are  valued  at  nearly  $500,- 
000,000.  Negro  landholdings  in  the  aggregate  make  an 
area  a  little  larger  than  the  State  of  South  Carolina.  The 
Russian  serfs,  after  fifty  years  of  freedom,  have  not  made 
greater  headway.  They  have  not  done  so  well  indeed  in 
their  conquest  of  illiteracy. 

True,  cropping  and  share  tenancy  are  increasing  in  the 
South  faster  than  cash  or  standing-rent  tenancy  with  its 
larger  measure  of  independent  self-direction — nearly  seven 
times  as  fast  during  the  last  census  period.  But  wherever 
land  is  abundant  or  labor  scarce  or  white  farmers  are  mov- 
ing out,  the  negro  rises  out  of  share  tenancy  into  cash 
tenancy  and  out  of  cash  tenancy  into  ownership. 

During  the  last  census  period  the  negroes  of  the  South 
increased  less  than  10  per  cent  in  population,  but  they  in- 
creased 17  per  cent  in  the  ownership  of  farms  against  a  12 
per  cent  increase  of  white  farm  owners.  In  Mississippi, 
Alabama,  and  North  Carolina  the  farms  cultivated  by  white 
owners  increased  only  9  per  cent,  but  the  farms  cultivated 
by  negro  owners  increased  19,  21,  and  22  per  cent  in  the 
order  named.  In  Arkansas,  while  white  farm  owners  in- 
creased 8  per  cent,  negro  farm  owners  increased  nearly  23 
per  cent.  In  Georgia  the  white  farm  owners  increased 
only  7  per  cent,  but  negro  farm  owners  increased  38  per 
cent.  Even  in  Louisiana,  where  there  was  an  actual  loss  of 
negro  farm  population,  there  was  an  increase  of  14  per  cent 
in  the  number  of  negro  farm  owners. 


44  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

In  283  counties,  or  nearly  one-third  of  all  the  counties 
of  ten  Southern  States,  the  negroes  are  in  a  majority.  In 
sixty-one  of  these  counties  negro  farm  owners  outnumber 
the  white  farm  owners.  This  is  true  of  five  counties  in 
Georgia,  six  in  Oklahoma,  eight  in  Arkansas,  eleven  in 
Mississippi,  and  seventeen  in  Virginia. 

The  negro  farmer  now  owns  $37,000,000  worth  of  farm 
implements  and  tools,  $177,000,000  worth  of  farm  animals, 
$273,000,000  worth  of  farm  lands  and  buildings.  During 
the  last  ten  years  he  has  nearly  doubled  his  wealth  in  farm 
implements,  more  than  doubled  his  wealth  in  farm  animals, 
and  nearly  trebled  his  wealth  in  farm  land  and  buildings. 

In  Georgia,  in  1910,  the  farms  cultivated  by  white  own- 
ers numbered  82,930,  an  increase  of  5,776,  or  7  per  cent 
during  the  ten  years.  The  farms  cultivated  by  negro  own- 
ers numbered  15,700,  an  increase  of  4,324,  or  38  per  cent 
during  this  period.  The  rate  of  negro  increase  in  farm 
ownership  in  Georgia  is  more  than  five  times  the  rate  of 
white  increase  during  the  last  census  period. 

In  1880  Georgia  negroes  owned  580,664  acres  of  farm 
land,  but  in  1910  they  owned  1,607,970  acres.  It  is  nearly 
a  threefold  increase  during  the  thirty  years.  Negro  prop- 
erty upon  the  tax  digests  of  Georgia  now  amounts  to  $34,- 
000,000.  Three-fourths  of  it  is  country  property.  Their 
gains  in  property  ownership  in  the  rural  regions  of  Georgia 
are  amazing,  but  they  appear  so  uniformly  on  our  tax 
digests  that  they  have  ceased  to  be  surprising. 

Here,  for  instance,  is  one  of  the  sixty-six  counties  in  the 
black  horseshoe  belt  of  the  State.  The  negroes  outnumber 
the  whites  more  than  four  to  one.  In  1910  they  owned  near- 
ly one-tenth  of  all  the  farm  land,  nearly  one-third  of  the 
plantation  and  mechanical  tools,  more  than  one-third  of  all 
the  household  goods  and  utensils,  nearly  one-half  of  all 
the  farm  animals,  and  one-sixth  of  the  total  aggregate 
wealth  of  the  county. 

In  another  county  there  are  1,148  negro  farm  owners. 
They  outnumber  the  white  farm  owners  nearly  three  to  one. 
In  the  census  year  only  twelve  mortgages  were  recorded 
against  the  negro  farms  of  this  county. 


THE   NEGRO   WORKING   OUT   HIS   OWN    SALVATION         45 

In  an  adjoining  county  four-fifths  of  all  the  farms 
cultivated  by  owners  are  cultivated  by  negro  owners.  In  the 
census  year  there  were  no  mortgages  whatsoever  on  negro 
farms  in  this  county. 

In  my  own  county  in  1910  they  owned  8,283  acres  of 
land;  in  one  district  more  than  one-fourth  and  in  another 
nearly  one-third  of  all  the  farm  land.  In  all,  957  negroes 
in  the  county,  or  more  than  one  in  every  three  males  of 
voting  age,  are  home  or  farm  owners. 

Where  they  are  thinly  scattered  among  white  majori- 
ties, they  make  even  more  astonishing  gains.  For  instance, 
here  is  a  county  in  which  the  negroes  own  15,146  acres  of 
land.  Their  gain  in  the  ownership  of  farm  animals  in  ten 
years  was  291  per  cent;  in  plantation  and  mechanical  tools, 
497  per  cent;  and  in  aggregate  wealth,  310  per  cent. 

In  the  white  belt  is  another  county  where  the  whites 
outnumber  the  negroes  nearly  two  to  one.  But  the  gain 
by  negroes  in  the  ownership  of  plantation  and  mechanical 
tools  during  the  census  period  was  376  per  cent;  in  farm 
animals,  226  per  cent;  in  total  aggregate  wealth,  230  per 
cent. 

II.  Their  Significance 

Here  then  in  brief  are  the  facts  concerning  negro  farm 
and  home  ownership  in  the  South.  They  show  that  the 
negro  is  a  dwindling  ratio  of  population  in  every  Southern 
State  except  Arkansas  and  Oklahoma;  that  he  is  a  decreas- 
ing ratio  of  population  in  the  cities  of  the  South;  but  that 
he  is  an  increasing  ratio  of  population  in  the  farm  regions 
of  every  Southern  State  except  Louisiana.  They  show  in 
every  Southern  State  without  exception  that  the  negroes 
are  increasing  in  farm  ownership  at  a  greater  rate  than  the 
whites ;  indeed,  at  rates  varying  all  the  way  from  two  and  a 
half  to  five  and  a  half  times  the  rates  of  white  increase  in 
farm  ownership.  Of  course  their  farm  holdings  are  small 
and  their  total  acreage  relatively  little;  but  assuredly  they 
are  getting  what  Uncle  Remus  calls  a  "toe-holt"  in  the  soil. 

1.  The  Negro  Works  Out  His  Own  Salvation  Under 
Racial  Law. — The  Southern  negro,  then,  is  working  out  his 


46  THE    HUMAN    WAY 

own  salvation,  not  in  terms  of  politics,  not  in  terms  of 
formal  education,  but  in  terms  of  property  ownership ;  and 
mainly  in  terms  of  land  in  the  rural  regions.  He  is  doing 
this  without  let  or  hindrance  in  the  South,  largely  aside 
from  the  awareness  of  the  whites,  largely  because  of  their 
indifference,  but  even  more  largely  with  the  sympathy  and 
help  of  his  white  friends  and  neighbors.  He  is  lifting  him- 
self up  by  tugging  at  his  own  boot  straps,  a  figure  commonly 
used  to  indicate  an  impossible  something;  but  in  civilization, 
as  in  education,  it  is  the  only  possible  means  of  elevation. 

The  negro  is  emerging  from  jungleism  and  winning  civi- 
lization mainly  and  necessarily  by  his  own  efforts.  He  is 
coming  out  of  darkness  into  light  in  accord  with  and  in  obe- 
dience to  the  laws  of  development.  His  progress  every  inch 
of  the  way  is  marked  by  struggle — struggle  within  himself 
for  mastery  over  himself,  and  struggle  with  outward,  un- 
toward surrounding  circumstances. 

His  real  successes  are  achieved  by  himself.  They  can- 
not be  thrust  upon  him  by  another.  He  cannot  be  coddled 
into  civilization  by  an  overplus  of  sympathy  from  friends 
far  or  near,  North  or  South.  We  have  tried  to  civilize  the 
Indian  with  reservations  and  free  rations,  and  we  have 
failed. 

The  negro  as  a  race  will  never  stand  really  possessed 
of  anything  that  he  does  not  win  worthily  by  himself  and 
for  himself.  His  gains  in  property  ownership,  position,  in- 
fluence, and  prominence  in  economic  and  civic  freedom 
will  keep  steady  pace  with  racial  efficiency.  His  destiny 
will  be  wrought  out  in  terms  biologic,  economic,  and  social ; 
and,  as  usual,  in  dumb,  blind  struggle  for  self-defensive  ad- 
justment to  surrounding  conditions. 

2.  The  Laws  of  Racial  Development  have  something  like 
the  steady,  fateful  pull  and  power  of  gravitation  or  any 
other  natural  law.  These  laws  can  be  discovered  and  ma- 
nipulated to  accelerate  or  retard  progress,  just  as  all  the 
laws  of  nature  can  be  discovered  and  harnessed  for  con- 
structive or  destructive  purposes.  They  can  be  recognized 
and  applied  as  the  laws  of  electricity  have  been  recognized 
and  applied.  They  cannot  be  invented  and  willed  into 


THE   NEGRO   WORKING   OUT   HIS   OWN   SALVATION         47 

operation  by  individual  bumptiousness  or  legislative  blind- 
ness. 

The  negro  problem  will  not  be  solved  by  editorials, 
screeds,  or  statutes;  by  conferences,  congresses,  or  assem- 
blies; by  pride,  prejudice,  or  passion. 

The  development  of  the  negro  can  be  stimulated,  safe- 
guarded, and  directed  wisely  and  beneficently.  The  asperi- 
ties of  natural  law  can  be  softened.  The  stream  of  tenden- 
cies can  be  kept  clear  of  injustice  and  cruelty,  brutality  and 
inhumanity;  and  it  will  be  so  if  we  have  any  Christianity 
worth  the  name. 

3.  His  Chance  Is  in  the  Country. — The  way  of  salvation 
for  the  negro  is  not  along  the  paved  highways  of  city  civili- 
zation. 

Whether  or  not  there  be  any  definite  racial  recognition 
of  this  fact,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  during  the  last 
census  period  there  was  a  steady  drift  of  negroes  out  of 
Southern  cities  into  farm  regions. 

The  modern  city  is  everywhere  a  challenge  to  the  civili- 
zation of  any  people,  black  or  white.  Under  urban  condi- 
tions the  breath  of  man  seems  to  be  fatal  to  his  fellows, 
but  most  of  all  fatal  to  the  negro.  Here  he  finds  the  strug- 
gle for  existence  fiercest.  Here  the  forces  of  life  most 
rapidly  eliminate  the  weak  and  unfit.  Here  physical  and 
moral  diseases  most  rapidly  work  destructive  results  upon 
the  race. 

The  death  rate  of  negroes  decreased  during  the  last  cen- 
sus period,  but  in  the  registration  area  it  is  still  60  per 
cent  higher  than  the  death  rate  of  the  whites ;  66  per  cent 
higher  in  Atlanta  and  Richmond,  77  per  cent  higher  in 
Birmingham  and  Baltimore,  89  per  cent  higher  in  New 
Orleans,  and  107  per  cent  higher  in  Charleston.  In  only 
one  city  of  America,  San  Antonio,  Tex.,  is  the  death  rate 
of  negroes  lower  than  the  death  rate  of  whites. 

In  Washington  City  the  death  rate  of  negro  infants  from 
all  diseases  is  from  two  and  a  half  to  nearly  four  times 
that  of  white  infants ;  while  the  death  rate  of  negro  infants 
from  tuberculosis  is  nearly  four  and  a  half  times  the  death 
rate  of  white  infants  from  this  disease. 


48  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

This  disproportionate  death  rate  among  negroes  is  not 
entirely  explainable  in  terms  of  race  alone.  They  herd  in 
slums  in  the  cities  North  and  South  because  they  are  poor. 
As  a  rule,  sanitary  conditions  in  these  slums  beggar  descrip- 
tion. 

4.  He  Wages  a  Losing  Battle  in  the  Cities. — But  also  in 
the  cities,  North  and  South  alike,  there  is  a  decreasing  range 
and  variety  of  industrial  opportunities  for  the  negro. 

The  barber  shops,  the  shoe-shine  parlors,  the  shoe-mend- 
ing shops,  the  delivery  and  sale  of  newspapers,  the  waiting 
in  hotels  and  restaurants,  and  even  domestic  service  in  the 
homes  are  steadily  passing  out  of  the  hands  of  the  city  negro 
everywhere.  The  same  thing  is  true  of  the  building  and 
repair  trades  of  all  sorts.  He  may  be  serving  his  own  race 
more  in  these  capacities,  but  he  is  certainly  everywhere 
serving  the  white  race  less. 

In  the  cities  the  negro  as  a  race  is  waging  a  losing  bat- 
tle. The  ravages  of  drink  and  drug  evils,  the  vices  and 
diseases  of  the  slums  make  swift  and  certain  inroads  upon 
the  race  as  a  whole  in  the  congested  centers  of  our  popu- 
lation. 

5.  The  Battle  of  Standards. — It  would  be  beyond  reason 
to  expect  a  belated  people  in  any  large  racial  way  to  suc- 
ceed upon  the  highest  levels  of  competition.     His  chances 
of  progress  are  upon  the  lower  levels,  where  life  is  less 
intense,  the  struggle  for  existence  less  desperate,  and  sur- 
rounding circumstances  more  propitious  and  helpful. 

The  negro's  chance  is  the  countryside.  Here  he  suc- 
ceeds and  achieves  a  new  economic  status  for  the  race. 

It  is  everywhere  true  that  lower  standards  of  living 
prevail  over  and  gradually  displace  higher  standards  of 
living  wherever  the  higher  standards  are  weakened  by  luxu- 
rious wants  and  undefended  by  increasing  energy  and  skill. 
This  social  law  is  operative  in  the  lower  rounds  of  industry 
as  well  as  in  the  simple  life  of  the  farm  regions.  The  for- 
eigner, for  instance,  displaces  the  native  whites  in  the  mills 
and  on  the  farms  of  New  England.  In  the  South  the  im- 
mense gains  of  the  negro  in  farm  ownership  is  an  apt 
illustration  of  this  law. 


THE   NEGRO   WORKING  OUT   HIS   OWN   SALVATION         49 

6.  He  Wages  a  Winning  Battle  in  the  Farm  Regions. — 
The  open  country  needs  him  as  a  farm  worker.    It  holds  out 
beckoning  hands  to  him.     The  countryside  has  no  slums. 
Fresh  air,  unmixed  sunshine,  and  pure  water  are  abundant. 
Fuel  is  everywhere  plentiful.    Nobody  ever  heard  of  a  coun- 
try negro's  freezing  or  starving  to  death  or  even  suffering 
for  the  necessities  of  life  in  the  rural  South.  In  the  country 
there  are  fewer  temptations  to  irregularities  of  living.    He 
sleeps  more  and  works  harder.    He  is  less  tempted  into  dissi- 
pation and  vice.    His  home  life  is  cleaner  and  wholesomer. 
His  children  are  closer  to  him  and  under  better  oversight. 
Family  life  is  less  apt  to  be  disrupted  by  immoralities  or 
desertion.     He  easily  saves  money  and  gets  ahead  in  the 
world  somewhat.    The  negro  is  waging  a  winning  battle  in 
the  farm  regions.     He  may  be  destined  for  the  present  to 
lose  out  everywhere  else,  but  he  is  rising  into  a  new  eco- 
nomic level  in  the  open  country. 

7.  His  Civilization  Begins  in  the  Home-Owning  Instinct. 
— Negro  civilization  begins,  then,  as  all  other  civilizations 
have  begun — in  the  home-owning,  home-loving,  home-de- 
fending instinct,  in  the  pride,  the  industry,  the  thrift,  and 
the  sense  of  law  and  order  that  are  peculiarly  bred  in  people 
by  land  ownership.    It  is  difficult  to  civilize  a  landless,  home- 
less people;  sojourners,  pilgrims,  and  strangers  in  the  land, 
foot-loose  and  free  to  wander  at  sweet  will  and  pleasure; 
without  abiding  interest  in  the  schools  and  Churches  of  the 
community,  in  law  and  order,  peace  and  progress. 

It  is  the  landless,  homeless  condition  of  the  people  of 
Mexico  that  makes  Mexican  civilization  such  a  puzzling, 
baffling  problem.  The  State  despairs  of  civic  stability  for 
them,  and  the  Church  well-nigh  despairs  of  salvation  for 
them.  Peonage,  both  economic  and  spiritual,  is  their  inevi- 
table lot  until  they  have  a  stake  in  the  land.  In  the  nature 
of  things  freedom  arises  out  of  land  ownership.  "The  land 
is  the  man,"  said  the  early  Saxons;  "no  land,  no  man." 

There  is  little  hope  in  any  country  for  vagrant  tenants, 
black  or  white.  A  little  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  of 
the  negro  farmers  of  Georgia  are  tenants.  Fifty-one  per 
cent  of  them  flit  every  year  into  new  fields  and  pastures 


50  THE    HUMAN   WAY 

green.  They  drift  into  the  lumber  camps,  into  and  out 
of  the  railway  gangs,  into  the  slum  quarters  of  the  cities 
and  out  again. 

Real  progress  in  the  civilization  of  this  race  lies  with 
the  home  and  farm  owners.  They  are  tethered  by  property 
ownership.  They  are  steadied  by  self-denial,  industry, 
thrift,  and  a  sense  of  personal  worth ;  and  by  the  same  cords 
they  are  bound  to  law  and  order.  They  develop  the  qualities 
and  virtues  of  citizenship.  They  think  twice  before  yield- 
ing to  criminal  impulse.  In  home  and  farm  ownership  they 
give  hostages  to  society. 

Land  ownership  sharpens  the  negro's  wits,  clarifies  his 
vision,  and  supports  his  conscience.  He  becomes  an  efficient 
moral  and  social  police  against  the  idle  and  vicious  of  his 
own  race.  Widespread  land  ownership  among  the  negroes 
would  cure  vagrancy  as  no  legislation  can  ever  do.  Every- 
where, among  all  peoples,  patriotism  is  rooted  in  the  soil 
and  is  nourished  by  it. 

8.  Loses  Faith  in  Spelling  Books;  Gains  Faith  in  Pocket- 
books. — It  is  not  without  significance  that  the  enrollment 
and  attendance  of  negro  children  in  schools  everywhere  lag 
behind  the  enrollment  and  attendance  of  white  children. 
This  is  true  not  only  in  the  South  but  in  the  North  and  West, 
where  ample  school  facilities,  long  terms,  and  splendid  op- 
portunities are  freely  open  to  them.  The  simple  truth  is, 
the  negro  is  getting  over  the  first  flush  of  the  notion  I  heard 
voiced  ten  years  ago  in  my  own  home  by  the  cook.  She 
jumped  on  her  little  granddaughter  in  the  shade  of  the 
back  yard,  saying,  "You  fool  nigger,  you  better  study  dat 
jogfry  lesson  eff'n  you  ever  'spect  to  be  a  lady  like  Miss 
Edie." 

He  is  losing  faith  in  spelling  books  and  gaining  faith  in 
pocketbooks  just  as  he  has  lost  faith  in  ballot  boxes  and 
gained  faith  in  bank  accounts.  In  Georgia  barely  more 
than  two-thirds  of  the  negro  children  are  registered  in  the 
schools  for  so  much  as  a  single  day  during  the  year;  and 
only  a  little  more  than  one-third  of  them  are  in  average 
attendance.  That  is  to  say,  practically  two-thirds  of  the 
negro  children  of  school  age  are  out  of  school  the  year 


THE   NEGRO   WORKING   OUT   HIS   OWN   SALVATION         51 

round.  It  is  rather  to  the  credit  of  the  negroes  that  they 
turn  indifferently  away  from  the  disgraceful  negro  schools 
in  the  country  regions  of  the  South. 

Dumbly,  blindly,  and  gropingly  they  are  basing  their 
progress,  not  on  formal  education,  but  upon  the  discipline  of 
mind  and  body,  disposition  and  character  involved  in  the 
acquisition  of  property.  Home  and  farm  ownership  calls 
for  industry,  steady  and  persistent;  for  self-denial  and  the 
sense  of  futurity  out  of  which  the  capital  of  the  business 
world  has  always  been  created.  It  calls  for  the  prompt 
doing  of  things  that  ought  to  be  done  whether  they  want  to 
do  them  or  not.  It  calls  for  the  weighing  of  remoter, 
greater  satisfactions  over  against  the  pleasures  and  satis- 
factions of  the  moment.  It  calls  for  self-propulsion,  self- 
compulsion,  and  severe  self-inflicted  discipline. 

These  are  lessons  learned  only  in  the  school  of  hard 
experience.  They  are  jewels  plucked  only  from  the  toad's 
head  of  adversity.  They  are  developed  in  a  race  only  by 
struggle  upward  through  long  periods  of  time.  Here  is 
industrial  education  that  counts.  It  is  education,  not  in 
languages,  but  in  realities,  in  the  things  and  affairs  of  life, 
by  the  goad  of  lively  ambition  or  pinching  necessity. 

The  tree  of  knowledge  is  best  watered  by  the  sweat  of 
labor.  Life  is  subdued  by  dyeing  one's  hands  in  the  stuff 
itself.  Doing  precedes  knowing  as  certainly  in  civilization 
as  in  religion.  Doing  something,  having  something,  know- 
ing something,  and  being  somebody  is  a  necessary  order  of 
development  for  individuals  and  races  alike.  Knowing 
by  doing  is  a  fundamental  law  of  pedagogy.  It  is  also  a 
fundamental  law  of  race  progress.  An  illiterate  home  and 
farm  owner  is  a  far  more  worthful  man  and  citizen  and 
really  is  far  better  educated  than  the  man  who  speaks  many 
languages  and  is  ignorant  in  them  all. 

9.  Black  Skins;  White  Characters. — Out  of  property 
ownership  comes  a  certain  sense  of  personal  worth  and 
dignity,  and  a  sure  realization  of  the  force  and  driving 
power  of  character.  One  of  my  earliest  recollections  con- 
cerns a  young  coal-black  negro  in  North  Carolina  winning 
his  spurs  in  a  great  speech  before  a  great  audience  of  both 


52  THE    HUMAN    WAY 

races.  He  daringly  stood  for  the  right  as  he  saw  it,  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  overwhelming  sentiment  of  his  people.  He 
was  fighting  a  great  enemy  and  curse  to  his  race,  the  drink 
evil.  When  Price  was  cut  down  by  untimely  death,  he  was 
laid  away  with  distinguished  honors.  Four  of  the  pallbear- 
ers were  black  and  four  of  them  were  white,  the  Chief  Jus- 
tice of  the  State  among  them. 

Upon  another  occasion  I  heard  the  Monday  program  of  a 
Southern  Chautauqua  publicly  adjourned  to  do  honor  to  a 
negro.  The  stores  of  the  little  city  were  closed  and  appar- 
ently everybody,  black  and  white,  was  in  attendance  upon 
the  funeral.  He  was  a  prosperous  negro  farmer  in  the 
county,  whose  account  was  sought  by  every  merchant  in 
the  city,  whose  word  was  as  good  as  his  bond,  whose  ad- 
vice and  counsel  to  his  people  were  always  sane  and  safe. 
Always  he  stood  as  a  breakwater  against  lawlessness  and 
disorder  of  every  description.  Again  the  pallbearers  were 
both  white  and  black,  and  Frank  Hill  was  laid  away  with 
a  distinct  sense  of  loss  on  the  part  of  the  entire  com- 
munity. 

10.  The  Need  for  Non-Partisan  Studies. — Negro  farm 
ownership  in  283  (or  nearly  one-third)  of  the  cotton  belt 
counties  in  which  the  negroes  are  densely  massed  is  one 
problem.  Farm  ownership  among  negroes  thinly  scattered 
in  white  counties  among  white  majorities  is  another  prob- 
lem. In  one  case  negro  property  owners  manifestly  yield 
to  the  upward  pull  of  the  surrounding  superior  mass.  Here 
they  certainly  acquire  ownership  with  accelerated  rapidity, 
and  with  advantage  to  themselves  and  the  community  at 
large.  In  the  other  case,  negro  farm  owners  are  thinly 
scattered  in  black  counties  among  black  majorities.  Do 
they  yield  to  the  downward  pull  of  the  surrounding,  infe- 
rior mass  of  shiftless,  thriftless  negroes?  Is  negro  life 
in  these  counties  slipping  back  into  savagery? 

The  answer  calls  for  complete  acquaintance  with  the 
facts.  There  are  now  many  negro  communities  that  are 
working  out  their  salvation  under  conditions  more  or  less 
sequestered.  In  Louisa  County,  Va.,  the  negroes  own 
fifty-three  thousand  acres  of  land;  in  Liberty  County,  Ga., 


THE   NEGRO   WORKING   OUT   HIS   OWN   SALVATION         53 

fifty-five  thousand  acres;  in  Macon  County,  Ala.,  sixty-one 
thousand  acres.  In  Beaufort  County,  S.  C.,  negro  farm 
owners  outnumber  white  farm  owners  seventeen  to  one. 
Negro  civilization  in  these  counties  is  at  hand  for  inves- 
tigation under  a  dry  light.  Mound  Bayou,  Miss.,  Boley, 
Okla.,  Tuskegee,  and  Greenwood  are  centers  of  negro  farm 
communities.  There  is  abundant  opportunity  for  direct, 
first-hand  study  by  non-partisan  investigators.  And  there 
is  need  for  race  studies  by  scientific  students,  in  scientific 
ways,  and  in  scientific  spirit. 

The  negro  has  suffered  from  the  zeal  of  retained  attor- 
neys for  preconceived  opinions;  almost  as  much  from  in- 
discreet friends  as  from  hostile  critics.  The  skies  ought  to 
be  cleared  by  impersonal,  impartial  acquaintance  with  the 
facts,  whatever  they  are,  concerning  negro  problems  and 
progress.  Many  good  people  in  the  South  stand  hesitating- 
ly aloof  because  they  are  insufficiently  informed  and  hon- 
estly in  doubt  about  what  is  really  best  for  the  negro  and 
the  community  in  which  he  lives. 

11.  Getting  Land  the  Beginning  of  Economic  Wisdom. — 
It  seems  fairly  clear  that  neither  for  the  negro  nor  for 
any  race  is  well-being  fully  determined  by  physical  sur- 
roundings. Being  better  off  does  not  necessarily  mean  be- 
ing better.  Home  and  farm  ownership  by  the  negroes  is 
not  the  end  of  the  problem,  but  it  seems  to  be  a  necessary 
beginning.  With  all  his  getting,  the  negro  is  getting  wis- 
dom enough  to  get  land,  and  it  is  at  least  the  beginning  of 
economic  wisdom  and  sovereign  freedom. 

By  virtue  of  home  and  land  and  other  property  owner- 
ship he  is  coming  to  be  a  civilizable,  Christianizable  crea- 
ture. Without  it  his  religion  would  always  be  an  emotional, 
unrelated,  unapplied  frenzy.  With  it  he  stands  a  chance 
to  bridge  the  gulf  between  creed  and  conduct,  emotion  and 
action.  Is  he  gaining  in  industry,  honesty,  law-abidingness 
and  comfort?  Yes — to  the  extent  that  he  is  gaining  in  home 
and  farm  ownership,  and  not  greatly  otherwise. 

Of  course  he  has  not  always  wisely  used  the  opportu- 
nities and  privileges  of  this  new-found  freedom.  Neither 
did  our  Teuton  forefathers  in  the  days  that  followed  the 


54  THE    HUMAN   WAY 

Reformation.  Slipping  the  bridle  of  the  priest,  they  found 
themselves  loose  in  pagan  meadows.  They  were  coltish 
accordingly.  The  seventeenth  century  in  Protestant  Europe 
is  a  story  of  unchecked  sensuality  and  rout,  vice  and  vicious- 
ness,  lawlessness  and  crime.  Racial  self-restraint  and  self- 
control  are  not  speedily  developed  in  any  race,  anywhere, 
at  any  time. 

12.  Crumbs  of  Religious  Instruction. — The  full  signifi- 
cance of  such  religion  as  we  really  have  could  not  have 
been  hidden  from  the  negro,  nor  could  he  possibly  have  es- 
caped its  influence.    Our  religion,  such  as  it  is,  has  wrought 
its  effect  upon  him  far  above  and  beyond  any  conscious 
will  and  effort.     The  negro  has  made  amazing  gains  in 
Church  activities,  religious  organization,  church-building, 
and  church  property  ownership  of  all  sorts.     His  white 
friends  and  neighbors  in  the  South  have  contributed  largely 
to  the  building  and  support  of  negro  churches  and  church 
enterprises.     We  have  given  building  sites  and  money — 
constantly,  good-naturedly,  and  more  or  less  indifferently. 
We  have  laughed  good-humoredly  at  the  negro's  religion. 
We  have  told  many  a  joke  about  its  emotional  nature  and 
its  lack  of  relation  to  ethical  conduct. 

But — and  I  think  I  ought  to  say  it — the  spiritual  well- 
being  of  the  negro  has  not  been  a  heavy  burden  of  respon- 
sibility upon  our  souls.  Of  late  years  he  has  had  barely 
more  than  the  crumbs  of  religious  instruction  that  have 
fallen  from  our  tables.  For  the  most  part  we  have  left 
to  the  negro  the  cure  of  his  own  soul.  We  have  not  been 
full  of  heaviness  because  of  his  sickness.  We  have  not  been 
greatly  disturbed  because  he  has  been  sitting  in  darkness 
and  in  the  shadow  of  death.  It  may  be  that  after  a  while 
we  shall  come  to  be  concerned  about  the  black  man's  soul. 
We  cannot  safely  exclude  from  our  scheme  of  ethics  or 
religion  any  creature,  dumb  or  human,  black  or  white,  who 
needs  our  help.  We  are  learning  this  fundamental  lesson — 
slowly. 

13.  The  Outlook. — Nevertheless  it  remains  always  and 
everlastingly  true  that  his  destiny  lies  not  in  his  stars, 
nor  in  another,  but  in  himself.     The  negro  will  work  out 


SOCIAL  AND   HYGIENIC  CONDITION  OF  THE  NEGRO       55 

his  own  salvation,  and  doubtless  in  fear  and  trembling. 
It  could  not  be  otherwise.  It  is  a  fateful  law  of  life,  eco- 
nomic and  social,  civic  and  spiritual. 

But  Paul  writes  it  to  the  Philippians  with  unspeakable 
tenderness.  It  will  be  well  for  both  races  in  the  South  if 
they  be  saturated  with  the  spirit  of  this  Epistle.  It  will  be 
ill  for  both  if  either  misses  its  meaning. 

The  negro  problem  will  be  settled  upon  no  plane  lower 
than  the  Ten  Commandments  and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 


SOCIAL  AND  HYGIENIC  CONDITION  OF  THE  NEGRO 
AND  NEEDED  REFORMS 

PROFESSOR  JOSIAH  MORSE,  PH.D.,  UNIVERSITY  OF  SOUTH 

CAROLINA 

I  HAVE  no  new  facts  to  offer,  no  new  tables  of  statistics 
to  present.  What  few  facts  and  figures  I  shall  use,  I  have 
taken  from  the  studies  of  others  who  have  given  to  the  sub- 
ject an  amount  of  time  and  energy  I  could  not  hope  to  dupli- 
cate. Nor  do  I  offer  this  as  an  apology  for  laziness,  or  even 
as  an  expression  of  regret.  To  tell  the  truth,  I  believe  we 
have,  and  have  had  for  some  time,  all  the  facts  we  need  for 
our  particular  purpose.  And  by  "we"  I  mean,  of  course, 
those  who  are  intelligently  interested  in  the  race  adjust- 
ment problem. 

I  am  a  firm  believer  in  science  and  scientific  methods: 
I  appreciate  the  value  of  masses  of  data  and  statistical 
studies,  but  I  do  not  believe  in  fetiches,  even  scientific  ones, 
and  I  fear  that  we  are  now  beginning  to  commit  sins  in 
the  name  of  science  just  as  formerly  they  were  committed 
in  the  names  of  truth,  liberty,  justice,  and  the  other  car- 
dinal virtues.  It  is  neither  science  nor  sense  to  count  the 
leaves  on  a  tree,  or  the  grains  of  sand  in  a  mound,  or  the 
number  of  times  the  various  letters  of  the  alphabet  occur 
in  the  Bible  or  in  Shakespeare.  To  do  this  is  manifestly  a 


56  THE    HUMAN   WAY 

waste  of  time  and  energy,  and  adds  nothing  of  value  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  respective  subjects.  Therefore,  when  some 
sociologists  raise  the  cry  for  facts,  more  facts,  and  still 
more  facts — as  if  there  lay  some  peculiar  charm  or  virtue 
in  the  very  amassing  of  them — I  fear  that  they  have  either 
developed  a  morbid  craving  for  such  things,  like  the  miser 
who  hoards  his  gold,  but  is  afraid  to  spend  any  of  it;  or 
else  in  their  subconsciousness  they  have  an  aversion  to  look- 
ing the  problem  squarely  in  the  face,  and  hope  to  postpone 
the  unpleasant  day  by  insisting  (not  without  some  satis- 
faction to  what  they  are  pleased  to  call  their  true  scientific 
spirit  and  proper  conservatism)  that  we  haven't  enough 
facts  as  yet  to  warrant  our  attempting  any  practical  solu- 
tion of  the  problem.  The  woods  are  full  of  those  whose  in- 
terest in  the  subject  is  academic.  Keep  it  on  this  high  plane, 
and  they  are  rationally  and  sentimentally  satisfied ;  but  sug- 
gest some  definite  and  practical  action,  and  their  tastes  and 
temperaments  immediately  compel  them  to  withdraw.  And 
so  inertia  and  prejudice,  in  the  guise  of  scientific  caution, 
check  for  another  year,  at  least,  the  advance  of  progress 
and  reform. 

No  one,  I  think,  would  seriously  argue  that  the  present 
attitude  of  the  masses  toward  the  negro  is  due,  in  any  large 
measure,  to  the  lack  of  accurate  and  detailed  knowledge  con- 
cerning him  and  the  various  phases  of  his  life ;  or  that  the 
more  favorable  attitude  of  some  Southerners  and  North- 
erners is  due  to  their  possession  of  this  knowledge.  In- 
deed, there  are  numerous  instances  among  the  latter  where 
the  favorableness  of  the  attitude  has  been  in  inverse  pro- 
portion to  the  knowledge  of  the  subject.  The  difference 
is  due  rather  to  difference  in  general  culture,  with  its  effects 
upon  the  feelings  and  emotions,  the  conscience  and  will, 
than  to  the  possession  or  lack  of  specific  information. 
Knowledge  itself  is  not  virtue,  as  Socrates  thought,  else 
there  would  be  no  discrepancy  between  knowing  and  doing. 
Knowledge,  to  be  sure,  is  necessary;  facts  and  figures  are 
essential,  but  after  a  sufficient  quantity  of  these  have  been 
gathered,  we  need  action,  moral  courage,  and  a  bit  of  fervor 
and  enthusiasm  to  make  the  knowledge  effective  and  fruit- 
ful. We  need  to  cash  in  our  facts,  now  and  then,  and  con- 


SOCIAL   AND   HYGIENIC   CONDITION   OF  THE   NEGRO        57 

vert  them  into  deeds,  if  we  are  to  escape  the  condition  of 
the  miser  mentioned  above.  As  Fichte  well  said:  "Not 
merely  to  know,  but  according  to  thy  knowledge  to  do,  is 
thy  vocation."  The  hosts  of  reformers  and  benefactors 
of  the  race,  from  the  Founder  of  Christianity  and  his 
apostles  to  the  founders  of  the  latest  republic — these  did  not 
ask  for  more  facts  and  statistics ;  these  did  not  consciously 
or  subconsciously  seek  excuses  for  procrastinating;  it  was 
sufficient  for  them  to  know  in  a  general,  yet  not  uncertain, 
way  that  conditions  needed  remedying,  that  they  could  be 
remedied,  and  forthwith  they  set  themselves  vigorously  to 
the  task  of  doing  it.  And  in  doing  so  they  forever  changed 
the  facts  of  human  history.  For  it  should  be  remembered 
that  facts  are  made,  not  found.  Alter  the  conduct  of  men, 
and  you  alter  the  facts  that  affect  them. 

This,  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  present-day  need  with  re- 
spect to  the  negro  problem.  We  need  not  more  facts,  valu- 
able as  these  are,  but  more  faith;  not  more  statistics  and 
academic  studies,  but  more  religion,  more  genuine  religion — 
more  faith  in  the  brotherhood  of  man  and  Fatherhood  of 
God — actually  to  believe  in  it,  as  we  believe  that  the  earth 
revolves  around  the  sun;  and  not  merely  subscribe  to  it 
perfunctorily  on  Sundays.  It  is  good  science,  as  well  as 
good  religion,  and  we  need  to  take  it  seriously.  Let  us  con- 
fess it:  we  need  more  love  and  sympathy  and  charity  and 
the  milk  of  human  kindness  when  we  deal  with  people  who 
are  different  and  less  fortunate  than  ourselves;  more 
\noblesse  oblige  with  those  handicapped  in  life's  struggle. 
And  these  things  are  not  to  be  had  upon  the  presentation 
of  a  few  facts.  They  need  to  be  cultivated  and  developed 
by  constant  preaching  and  teaching  from  press  and  pulpit 
and  platform,  in  the  schools  and  colleges  and  on  the  stump. 
We  need  missionary  work,  and  a  company  of  fearless  mis- 
sionaries who  will  have  the  high  courage  to  teach  unpopular 
truths  to  their  own  people  and  in  their  own  communities. 

I  say  these  things,  not  as  one  who  brings  an  indictment 
against  his  people.  Far  from  it.  I  know  we  are  a  generous 
folk,  warm-hearted,  chivalric,  and  sympathetic;  we  have 
noble  impulses  and  worthy  ideals;  we  cultivate  the  virtues 
as  well  as  the  graces  of  enlightened  society,  and  no  people 


58  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

is  quicker  to  respond  to  human  appeals  than  we  are.  Had 
the  slaves  been  taken  originally  to  Germany,  Russia,  Tur- 
key, or  other  foreign  countries,  I  am  sure  that  the  most 
active  and  eloquent  champions  of  their  "God-given  and 
inalienable  rights  and  privileges  as  human  beings"  would 
have  come  from  our  own  Southern  States.  For  we  in- 
stinctly  hate  oppression  and  tyranny  in  whatever  shape  or 
form.  And  yet  we  do  not  altogether  live  up  to  this  charac- 
terization in  our  own  treatment  of  the  negro.  How  shall  we 
explain  the  inconsistency? 

To  answer  this  adequately  would  require  an  extended 
psychological  analysis  of  race  prejudice,  many  elements  of 
which  are  older  than  the  human  race  and  not  without  their 
positive  value  in  the  evolution  of  the  species.  There  is  one 
element,  however,  which  plays  a  very  important  role,  but 
which  has  not  as  yet  received  its  due  recognition.  I  refer 
to  the  power  which  ideas  and  beliefs  have  over  conduct. 
When  Descartes  persuaded  his  contemporaries  that  animals 
are  mere  automata,  without  intelligence  or  feeling,  even  the 
tender-hearted  Malebranche  could  without  hurt  to  his  feel- 
ings kick  the  dog  that  was  fawning  on  him.  When  belief 
in  demoniacal  possession  was  prevalent,  excellent,  God- 
fearing men  helped  to  burn,  stone,  and  drown  the  possessed. 
The  belief  that  their  ancestors  were  much  wiser  and  better 
than  they  could  ever  hope  to  become  had  much  to  do  with 
arresting  the  development  of  the  Chinese  for  more  than 
two  thousand  years.  And  so  the  illustrations  might  be 
multiplied. 

I  fear  the  attitude  of  many  of  our  people  toward  the 
negro  has  been  determined  to  a  considerable  extent  by 
equally  erroneous  ideas.  They  have  been  persuaded  by  a 
generation  of  short-sighted,  uneducated,  and  unscrupulous 
demagogues  that  the  development  and  elevation  of  the  negro 
is  somehow  incompatible  with  the  best  interests  of  the  white 
men;  that  prosperity  for  the  black  man  spells  ruin  for  the 
white  man;  that  what  is  good  for  the  one  is  bad  for  the 
other;  what  is  true  for  one  is  false  for  the  other.  And  do 
this  strange  state  of  affairs  has  come  to  pass:  that  those 
traits  and  things  we  admire  when  possessed  by  ourselves 
and  all  the  white  world,  we  dislike  when  they  appear  in  the 


SOCIAL  AND  HYGIENIC  CONDITION   OF  THE  NEGRO       59 

negro;  our  virtues,  when  cultivated  and  practiced  by  the 
black  man,  become  by  some  strange  alchemy  transformed 
into  vices.  Thus  we  recognize  that  education  is  a  good 
thing,  and  those  who  strive  for  it  are  deserving  of  appro- 
bation and  even  praise.  Likewise,  manliness  and.  self- 
respect  are  commendable;  and  ambition  and  thrift  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness  are  not  to  be  condemned.  And  yet 
there  are  too  many  who  prefer  the  ignorant,  lazy,  diseased, 
immoral  negro — even  the  vicious  and  criminal  one — to  the 
self-respecting,  progressive,  property-owning,  educated  one. 

Now  it  is  evident  that  this  condition  cannot  long  con- 
tinue without  endangering  the  very  foundations  of  our 
civilization.  Double-dealing  of  this  sort  is  bound  ultimately 
to  bring  bankruptcy  and  ruin.  Hence  the  urgent  need,  as 
I  see  it,  for  courage,  patriotism,  and  zeal  to  be  spent  in 
popular  educational  efforts  which  shall  seek  to  bring  about 
a  change  in  the  prevailing  attitude  toward  the  negro  similar 
to  that  which  Rousseau  wrought,  single-handed,  in  the  field 
of  education  proper,  and  later  in  the  realm  of  government. 

Coming  more  closely  to  the  subject  assigned,  we  may 
observe  that  it  is  well  known  that  the  negro  death  rate  is 
excessively  high — almost  twice  that  of  the  white — and  that 
the  diseases  which  exact  the  heaviest  toll  are  consumption, 
pneumonia,  scrofula,  syphilis,  and  infantile  diseases  (in- 
fantile marasmus,  cholera  infantum,  whooping  cough,  inani- 
tion). But  the  erroneous  conclusion  is  drawn  from  these 
facts  that  the  negro  has  a  lower  vitality  or  resistance  power 
than  the  white,  due  to  an  inferior  physical  organism.  Thus 
Mr.  Frederick  L.  Hoffman,  who  has  been  widely  quoted, 
writes :  "The  vitality  of  the  negro  may  well  be  considered 
the  most  important  phase  of  the  so-called  race  problem; 
for  it  is  a  fact  which  can,  and  will,  be  demonstrated  by 
indisputable  evidence,  that  of  all  races  for  which  statistics 
are  obtainable,  and  which  enter  at  all  in  the  consideration  of 
economic  problems  as  factors,  the  negro  shows  the  least 
power  of  resistance  in  the  struggle  for  life.'"1 

Mr.  Hoffman's  prepossessions  have  patently  led  him  to 
commit  the  fallacy  of  "false  cause."  For  it  is  also  a  fact 


*"Race  Traits  and  Tendencies  of  the  American  Negro,"  p.  37. 


60  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

that  there  is  more  poverty  among  the  negroes,  more  illit- 
eracy and  ignorance  of  the  laws  of  health,  modern  sanita- 
tion, and  personal  and  public  hygiene;  that  their  living 
quarters  are  inferior,  their  physical  environment  less  sani- 
tary, and  that  a  much  larger  percentage  of  their  mothers  are 
breadwinners,  which  means  neglect  of  the  children,  mal- 
nutrition, etc.  And  inasmuch  as  these  are  causes  of  dis- 
ease among  all  peoples,  the  world  over,  why  may  they  not 
account  for  the  excessive  disease  and  death  rate  among  the 
negroes?  Mr.  Hoffman  would  harly  maintain  that  the 
larger  disease  and  death  rate  of  the  Russian  peasants,  for 
example,  half  of  whose  children  die  before  one  year  of  age, 
or  of  our  own  factory  and  mill  workers  indicate  that 
they  possess  the  least  power  of  resistance  in  the  struggle 
for  life. 

Moreover,  a  comparison  of  the  negro  death  rate  in  the 
different  cities  brings  out  unmistakably  the  relationship 
between  the  factors  above  mentioned  and  disease  and  death. 
Thus  the  negro  death  rate  for  Charleston,  S.  C.,  as  given 
by  the  United  States  Census  for  1900,  and  quoted  by  the 
Atlanta  University  investigators,  is  46.7  per  thousand  popu- 
lation; that  of  Savannah,  43.4;  New  Orleans,  42.4;  Rich- 
mond, 38.1;  Norfolk,  33.8;  Nashville,  32.8;  Atlanta,  31.8; 
while  Cleveland  shows  only  18 ;  Columbus,  21.2 ;  New  York, 
21.3;  Chicago,  21.6;  Indianapolis,  23.8;  Boston  and  Buf- 
falo, 25.5;  and  New  Haven,  which  has  the  highest  rate  of 
the  twelve  Northern  cities  studied,  31.8.  These  are  the 
cru<ie  rates,  but  the  corrected  rates  make  no  appreciable  dif- 
ference in  the  results  for  comparative  purposes.  Again,  it 
appears  from  the  above-mentioned  study  that  the  death  rate 
of  the  Chicago  negroes  is  lower  than  that  of  the  whites  in 
New  Orleans,  Charleston,  Savannah,  Atlanta,  Mobile,  and 
Memphis;  that  of  the  Boston  negroes  is  lower  than  the 
white  rate  in  Charleston;  and  the  negro  rates  in  Philadel- 
phia, Indianapolis,  and  Chicago  are  lower  than  the  white 
rates  in  both  Charleston  and  Savannah.  The  Savannah 
white  infantile  mortality  is  higher  than  the  negro  rates  in 
Pittsburg,  Indianapolis,  Cincinnati,  Chicago,  and  Boston. 
In  the  Northern  cities,  too,  the  negro  rates  approximate 
more  nearly  the  total  rates  than  in  the  Southern  cities. 


SOCIAL  AND   HYGIENIC   CONDITION   OF  THE   NEGRO        61 

Furthermore,  there  has  been  a  constant  decrease  in  both 
the  disease  and  death  rates  for  the  negroes  in  all  the  cities, 
both  South  and  North,  during  the  past  thirty-five  or  forty 
years. 

But  why  multiply  figures  ?  The  negro  is  a  human  being, 
and  modern  anthropology  has  shown  that  the  differences 
among  human  beings — anatomical,  physiological,  and  men- 
tal— are  insignificant  as  compared  with  their  fundamental 
resemblances  and  identities.  We  shall  certainly  not  need 
a  negro  science  of  medicine.  The  things  that  breed  disease 
among  the  whites — poverty,  ignorance,  overcrowding,  im- 
morality, alcoholism,  insanitary  premises,  neglect  and  mal- 
nutrition of  children,  etc. — will  breed  disease  with  equal 
facility  among  the  negroes.  And  we  may  rest  assured  that 
the  measures  and  remedies  that  prevent  and  cure  diseases 
among  the  whites  will  do  the  same  for  the  blacks. 

And  what  is  true  of  the  body  in  this  respect  is  also  true 
of  the  mind.  The  conditions  that  make  for  morality  or  im- 
morality, for  happiness  or  unhappiness,  for  love  and  hate, 
sympathy  and  antipathy,  kindness  and  cruelty,  etc.,  among 
the  whites  accomplish  the  same  results  for  the  blacks.  We 
shall  not  need  a  separate  psychology  for  the  negroes,  nor  a 
separate  logic,  ethics,  sociology,  economics;  not  even  a 
separate  religion  or  art.  The  laws  and  facts  of  human 
nature  discovered  by  these  various  sciences  are  equally 
true  of  the  colored  races  of  man  as  of  the  white.  Science 
knows  no  essential  distinctions,  because  nature  knows  none. 
And  that  is  why,  in  my  opinion,  our  problem  is  not  nearly 
so  difficult  as  it  might  be,  or  as  it  appears  to  some.  We 
know  the  essential  facts  and  conditions;  we  know  that 
everything  human,  from  culture  to  disease,  is  intercommuni- 
cable  among  the  races  of  men ;  we  know  that  the  foundation 
stones  upon  which  this  universe  rests  are  righteousness  and 
justice,  and  honesty,  and  love;  we  know  that  injustice  can- 
not be  done  with  impunity  to  the  doer,  that  it  must  be  paid 
for  with  compound  interest  and  at  an  exhorbitant  rate; 
we  know  that  no  problem  can  be  permanently  solved  unless 
it  be  solved  fairly  and  in  a  generous  spirit;  we  know  that 
the  negro  is  here  to  stay,  and  that  our  welfare  and  happiness 
and  health  and  progress  are  inextricably  interwoven  with 


62  THE    HUMAN   WAY 

his — then  let  us  teach  these  truths  honestly  and  fearlessly, 
though  not  in  an  unwise  or  unpedagogical  manner,  to  those 
who  do  not  know  them,  especially  to  to-morrow's  citizens. 
To  be  more  specific,  let  me  suggest  that  this  organization 
might  make  a  beginning  in  this  direction  by  appointing  a 
committee  to  select  materials  concerning  the  negro  and  his 
adjustment  to  our  civilization,  suitable  for  inclusion  in  our 
school  histories,  geographies,  and  readers;  and  that  recom- 
mendations be  made  to  all  the  Southern  colleges  and  univer- 
sities that  a  course  in  Race  Adjustment  be  given  in  their 
departments  of  Sociology  and  Economics.  In  this  way,  I 
believe,  we  shall  most  speedily  and  effectively  rid  our  social 
system  of  the  poisons  of  prejudice  which  are  now  causing 
so  much  suffering  and  loss  to  both  races ;  and  in  this  way  we 
shall  lay  the  foundation,  at  least,  for  the  satisfactory  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  in  the  future. 

There  remain  to  be  made  a  few  brief  and  general  re- 
marks concerning  the  needed  reforms.  All  will  agree,  T 
think,  that  the  housing  of  the  majority  of  negroes  is  in 
imperative  need  of  improvement.  It  is  neither  right  nor 
rational  to  expect,  to  any  considerable  extent,  good  citizen- 
ship, efficiency,  desire  for  improvement,  pride,  ambition,  in- 
telligence, morality,  or  any  other  desirable  quality  from  a 
people  who  must  live  in  shanties  and  hovels  located  in  un- 
sanitary and  unsightly  back  alleys  and  bottoms.  We  have 
no  right  to  expect  the  physical  environment  which  is  known 
to  exert  a  powerful  influence  upon  the  life  and  character  of 
whites  to  be  obligingly  ineffective  in  the  case  of  the  negroes. 
Miss  Ovington  found  in  her  study  of  the  New  York  negro 
that  two  model  tenements  built  by  Mr.  Henry  Phipps  in 
the  notorious  San  Juan  Hill  district  have  made  that  particu- 
lar section  of  it  "one  of  the  peaceful  and  law-abiding  blocks 
of  the  city."*  A  clean,  attractive  house  and  a  clean  street, 
like  clean,  well-kept  clothes,  make  for  morality  and  order 
and  good  conduct. 

But  not  only  is  the  average  negro  settlement  inimical 
to  good  citizenship,  using  the  term  broadly;  it  is  also  the 
breeding  place  of  contagious  diseases.  And  this  fact,  no 


*"Half  a  Man,"  p.  42. 


SOCIAL  AND   HYGIENIC   CONDITION   OF  THE   NEGRO        63 

doubt,  accounts  to  a  large  extent  for  not  only  the  high  death 
rate  among  the  negroes  in  Southern  cities,  but  also  among 
the  whites.  We  must  have  anti-shanty  laws  and  public 
health  laws,  which  shall  prevent  overcrowding  and  the 
breeding  and  spreading  of  disease  and  vice,  for  our  own 
sakes  and  our  children's  sakes,  if  not  for  the  negro's  sake. 
Modern  plumbing  and  sewerage  are  no  longer  luxuries  for 
the  rich ;  they  are  necessities  one  might  almost  say  in  inverse 
proportion  to  wealth  and  culture.  Such  laws  would  work  no 
hardship  upon  the  owners  of  negro  houses,  for  it  is  well 
known  that  houses  occupied  by  negroes,  like  those  used  for 
immoral  purposes,  bring  the  highest  rentals  and  rates  of 
interest.  If  the  negro  receives  less  for  his  dollar  than  the 
white  man,  he  retaliates,  or  nature  retaliates  for  him,  by 
making  the  white  man  turn  over  the  excess,  and  some  of 
his  own  for  interest,  to  the  physician  and  undertaker. 

Selfish  and  humanitarian  impulses  combined  should  lead 
to  cooperation  in  the  establishment  and  support  of  more 
hospitals,  asylums,  orphanages,  reform  schools,  and  other 
institutions  and  agencies  that  minister  to  human  needs. 
Some  day,  perhaps,  we  shall  not  even  be  unwilling  to  help 
support  parks  and  playgrounds,  which  will  make  whole- 
some utilization  of  their  naturally  strong  play  impulses. 

Above  all,  there  is  needed  in  each  community  a  per- 
manent Race  Adjustment  Committee,  composed  of  members 
of  both  races,  whose  business  it  shall  be  to  strive  to  bring 
about  that  condition  so  strikingly  and  aptly  described  by 
Booker  T.  Washington  in  his  famous  Atlanta  Exposition  ad- 
dress, which,  by  the  way,  would  fit  admirably  into  the 
reader  proposed  above:  "In  all  things  that  are  purely 
social,  we  can  be  as  separate  as  the  fingers,  yet  one  as  the 
hand  in  all  things  essential  to  mutual  progress." 


64  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

THE   PREVALENCE   OF   CONTAGIOUS  AND   INFEC- 
TIOUS DISEASES  AMONG  THE  NEGROES,  AND 
THE  NECESSITY  OF  PREVENTIVE 
MEASURES 

GEORGE  W.  HUBBARD,  M.D.,  DEAN  MEHARRY  MEDICAL  COLLEGE, 
NASHVILLE,  TENN. 

IT  is  now  easy  to  differentiate  clearly  between  con- 
tagious and  infectious  diseases,  and  these  terms  are  fre- 
quently used  interchangeably.  Contagious  diseases  are 
propagated  by  immediate  contact  or  intervention  of  some 
other  medium  from  the  sick  to  the  healthy.  Many  of  the 
diseases  commonly  called  contagious  are  also  infectious — 
that  is,  they  are  propagated,  not  by  direct  contact,  but  by 
water,  air,  and  food  which  may  become  infected  with  living 
germs. 

With  our  present  knowledge  some  diseases  are  simply 
contagious,  and  we  cannot  conceive  of  their  being  trans- 
mitted by  infected  air  or  drinking  water.  Cholera  and 
typhoid  fever  are  examples  of  infectious  diseases,  neither 
of  them  being  directly  contagious  from  the  sick  to  the  well, 
but  through  other  agencies.  Smallpox  is  not  only  conta- 
gious but  also  infectious. 

The  germs  of  infection  in  contagious  diseases  may  be 
conveyed  either  by  inanimate  objects  which  come  in  contact 
with  the  original  sources  of  the  disease  or  by  living  animals. 
Transmission  by  animals,  especially  insects,  is  now  attract- 
ing a  considerable  amount  of  attention.  The  common  house- 
fly, which  has  been  for  ages  considered  only  a  troublesome 
nuisance,  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  dangerous  carriers 
of  disease,  especially  typhoid  fever.  Mosquitoes  are  now 
known  to  be  the  agents  by  which  malaria  and  yellow  fevers 
are  transmitted.  Flies,  bedbugs,  spiders,  and  lice  have 
been  tried  and  pronounced  guilty  of  acting  as  carriers  of 
diseases.  Rats  and  ground  squirrels  cause  the  spread  of 
the  bubonic  plague,  and  a  war  to  exterminate  them  is  now 
being  raged  on  the  Pacific  Coast  and  in  other  countries. 


PREVALENCE   OF  DISEASES   AMONG  THE   NEGROES         65 

This  is  the  age  of  preventive  medicine.  It  is  probable 
that  more  progress  has  been  made  in  this  direction  during 
the  last  thirty  years  than  in  all  of  the  preceding  centuries. 
The  establishment  on  a  firm  basis  of  the  germ  theory  of 
diseases  has  produced  a  decided  change  in  regard  to  both 
the  cause  and  treatment  of  many  diseases  whose  origin  had 
hitherto  been  an  unsolved  mystery. 

Pulmonary  consumption  was  for  ages  considered  a  hered- 
itary disease,  but  it  is  now  known  to  be  caused  by  a  germ 
known  as  bacillus  tuberculosis. 

Diphtheria  has  lost  many  of  its  terrors  and  the  mor- 
tality from  this  disease  has  been  largely  decreased.  It  has 
been  estimated  that  one-half  of  the  deaths  occurring  in  this 
country  might  be  prevented  if  proper  precautions  were 
observed. 

In  former  days  pulmonary  consumption  was  a  rare  dis- 
ease among  the  slave  population  of  the  South;  now  it  is 
one  of  the  most  common  and  fatal.  In  the  registration  area 
of  1890  the  death  rate  was  546  of  the  colored  to  230  of  the 
white  per  100,000.  In  1900  it  was  485  to  175.  In  the  larger 
cities  and  towns  of  the  South  the  death  rate  from  con- 
sumption is  from  two  to  four  times  as  great  as  that  of  the 
whites.  In  Nashville  in  1911  the  death  rate  was  2  4-10  per 
cent  as  great. 

The  health  of  the  negro  is  a  question  of  vital  importance 
to  the  white  people  of  the  South.  The  cooking,  washing, 
nursing,  and  general  household  work  is  largely  in  their 
hands.  The  prevalence  of  contagious  diseases  among  them 
is  a  menace  to  all  with  whom  they  may  come  in  contact. 
"No  man  liveth  unto  himself  and  no  man  dieth  unto  him- 
self." We  are  our  brother's  keeper. 

CAUSES  OF  EXCESSIVE  DEATH   RATE  AMONG   COLORED  PEOPLE 
OF   THE   SOUTH   FROM   CONTAGIOUS  DISEASES 

Ignorance 

Ignorance  of  the  laws  of  health  is  common  among  fairly 
well  educated  people,  but  among  those  who  have  had  few 
opportunities  to  obtain  an  education  it  is  much  more  preva- 


66  THE    HUMAN    WAY 

lent.  One  of  the  most  common  errors  is  that  night  air  is 
unhealthy,  and  that  every  door,  window,  and  other  open- 
ing of  sleeping  rooms  must  be  tightly  closed.  In  addition  to 
this  many  cover  their  heads  with  thick  blankets  and  com- 
forts. It  is  possible  that  this  fear  of  night  air  originated 
from  the  once  common  belief  that  malaria  was  more  likely 
to  attack  those  who  were  out  at  night  or  slept  with  open 
windows,  little  realizing  that  the  mosquito,  not  night  air, 
was  the  cause  of  malarial  diseases.  The  healthful  influence 
of  sunlight  is  but  little  understood,  and  in  houses  that  are 
well  provided  with  windows  they  are  carefully  closed  by 
shutters  or  thick  curtains. 

Poverty 

1.  This  means  that  they  do  not  know  how  to  judiciously 
invest  the  small  amount  of  money  they  have  alloted  them 
for  household  expenses,  and  that  they  are  not  properly  sup- 
plied with  nutritious  food. 

2.  Insufficient  and  unsuitable  clothing,  especially  warm 
underclothing  and  good  shoes. 

3.  Lack  of  a  proper  amount  of  sleep.     Religious  exer- 
cises as  well  as  balls  and  secret  societies  are  frequently 
continued  until  late  hours,  and  as  laboring  people  must 
rise  early  in  the  morning  they  have  from  four  to  five  hours 
to  sleep  instead  of  six,  seven,  and  eight  hours. 

4.  They  are  frequently  exposed  to  the  vicissitudes  of 
the  weather  and  often  poorly  protected. 

Environments 

The  location  of  many  of  their  dwellings  is  unhealthy.  If 
they  rent  their  houses,  they  are  often  situated  in  crowded 
alleys  or  they  are  compelled  to  occupy  dark,  damp  basements 
which  are  badly  ventilated  and  poorly  lighted.  If  they  are 
to  own  their  own  home,  it  is  frequently  impossible  for  them 
to  purchase  lots  or  houses  in  desirable  localities.  Some  one 
has  said  that  it  is  impossible  for  a  family  to  be  born,  live,  and 
die  in  one  room,  and  be  able  to  reach  any  high  degree  of 
culture  or  morality  if  they  are  obliged  to  live  in  such  a  con- 
dition. This  is  true  of  a  large  number  of  colored  families. 


PREVALENCE   OF  DISEASES   AMONG  THE   NEGROES         67 

Migration  to  Cities 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  so  many  families  who  were 
comfortably  situated  in  the  country  should  flock  to  the 
cities,  where  the  demand  for  unskilled  labor  is  far  less  than 
the  supply,  the  chance  for  making  a  comfortable  living  less 
on  account  of  less  demand,  where  their  sanitary  surround- 
ings are  likely  to  be  far  inferior  to  those  in  the  country, 
and  where  they  will  be  exposed  to  all  of  the  temptations  of 
city  life.  During  the  last  decade  the  colored  population  of 
the  Southern  cities  increased  a  little  over  20  per  cent, 
which  is  7  per  cent  less  than  the  increase  of  the  white  popu- 
lation for  the  same  period. 

Superstition  and  Fatalism 

The  voodooism  of  the  native  African,  when  compounded 
with  the  superstitions  of  the  Scotch,  Irish,  and  English, 
makes  a  curious  mixture  which  is  sometimes  annoying,  but 
oftener  quite  serious  in  its  results.  Good  luck  will  come 
to  those  who  have  a  horseshoe  nailed  over  the  door,  and  the 
left  hind  foot  of  a  graveyard  rabbit  will  bring  good  luck 
to  the  person  who  carries  one  about  on  his  person.  If  the 
seventh  daughter  treads  over  the  back  of  a  person  afflicted 
with  rheumatism,  a  complete  cure  is  sure  to  follow.  A  horse 
chestnut  carried  in  the  pocket  will  also  cure  the  same 
disease.  The  conjure  bag  in  the  hands  of  an  enemy  is  sure 
to  produce  untold  evils.  I  was  once  called  to  treat  a  woman 
who  was  confined  to  her  bed  afflicted  with  what  seemed 
to  be  some  obscure  disease  that  I  was  unable  to  diagnose, 
and  my  treatment  was  very  unsatisfactory  to  both  myself 
and  the  patient.  Calling  one  day  when  she  seemed  much 
better,  I  was  informed  that  she  had  found  out  what  her 
trouble  was.  She  said  that  she  had  suspected  that  she  had 
been  conjured,  and  on  cutting  open  her  pillow  she  found 
that  it  contained  a  conjure  bag.  After  this  had  been  taken 
out  she  began  to  recover,  and  in  a  short  time  was  as  well  as 
usual.  We  must  acknowledge  that  while  we  cannot  under- 
stand the  power  of  the  mind  over  the  body  in  diseases  we 
must  recognize  its  importance. 


68  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

My  readers  may  not  be  aware  of  the  fact  that  1913  is 
an  unlucky  year,  as  it  contains  the  number  13,  and  the 
occurrence  of  floods,  fires,  and  tornadoes  clearly  indicates 
that  this  is  true.  I  know  of  one  young  woman  who  hurried 
her  preparations  for  marriage,  and  had  the  ceremony  per- 
formed a  few  days  before  the  beginning  of  this  year. 
Every  one  knows  that  no  undertaking  should  be  begun  on 
Friday.  People  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  lineage  should  not  be 
too  ready  to  condemn  the  superstitions  of  their  colored 
brethren  when  they  consider  the  source  from  which  many 
of  them  were  derived. 

I  do  not  propose  to  discuss  the  question  of  fatalism  from 
a  theological  standpoint,  but  from  that  of  health,  and  it  is 
sometimes  hard  to  distinguish  between  faith  and  presump- 
tion. If  a  man  thoroughly  believes  that  he  cannot  die  until 
his  time  comes,  he  will  be  very  unlikely  to  take  the  proper 
measures  to  care  for  health  and  prolong  life.  It  would  of 
course  be  of  no  use  to  summon  a  physician  in  case  of  sick- 
ness or  to  employ  a  surgeon  for  an  operation.  I  was  once 
called  upon  to  sign  a  death  certificate  of  a  little  girl  whom 
I  had  treated.  The  mourning  friends  did  not  blame  the 
attending  physician,  but  said  that  he  had  done  the  best 
he  could,  that  the  girl's  time  had  come  to  die,  and  all  the 
doctors  in  the  world  could  not  have  saved  her. 

Remedies 

The  practical  question  is,  What  can  be  done  to  diminish 
the  excessive  death  rate  now  prevailing  among  the  colored 
people  of  the  South,  especially  in  the  large  cities  and  towns? 

1.  Instruction  in  practical  hygiene  should  be  given  in 
every  public  school,  and  teachers  who  are  not  capable  of 
instructing  their  pupils   in   this   direction  should  not  be 
allowed  to  teach. 

2.  An  advance  course  regarding  the  preservation  of 
health  should  be  made  obligatory  in  all  secondary  schools, 
colleges,  and  universities,  and  should  constitute  a  part  of 
the  regular  course  of  study  in  such  institutions. 

3.  Ministers  should  at  stated  intervals  speak  to  their 
congregations  on  the  subject  of  public  health,  and  similar 


PREVALENCE   OF  DISEASES   AMONG  THE   NEGROES         69 

instructions  might  be  given  in  Sunday  schools  and  young 
people's  societies. 

4.  In  large  cities  and  towns  competent  colored  nurses 
should  be  employed  by  the  public  authorities  to  visit  the 
homes  and  give  advice  and  needed  assistance  to  all  who  are 
threatened  with  or  actually  suffering  from  consumption. 

5.  More  colored  physicians  should  be  prepared  to  go 
and  administer  to  the  wants  of  their  people,  and  these  physi- 
cians should  cooperate  with  the  health  authorities  in  pre- 
venting the  spread  of  consumption  and  other  contagious 
diseases.     In  a  number  of  cases  a  colored  health  officer 
has  been  appointed  and  has  proved  very  effective  in  carry- 
ing on  the  work. 

6.  The  health  authorities  should  exert  their  influence 
and  aid  in  every  way  in  the  suppression  of  everything  that 
tends  to  promote  the  spread  of  these  diseases. 

7.  Hospitals   for  tubercular  cases  ought  to  be  estab- 
lished in  every  State  for  the  reception  of  patients  who  may 
be  amenable  to  hygienic  and  medical  treatment.     In  coun- 
ties where  there  is  a  large  colored  population  there  might 
be  arrangements  for  the  reception  of  patients  from  that 
county  alone  or  a  number  of  counties  might  unite  in  sup- 
porting such  an  institution.    Davidson  County,  Tenn.,  has 
a  model  sanitarium  which  has  proved  of  great  benefit  to 
the  colored  people  of  Nashville  and  vicinity. 

8.  All  physicians  should  be  required  to  report  all  sus- 
pected cases  of  tuberculosis,  and  where  they  do  not  receive 
the  proper  attention  at  home  they  should  be  removed  to 
some  hospital  foi*  treatment. 

The  colored  people  should  be  impressed  with  the  value 
of  vaccination  for  the  prevention  of  smallpox,  and  all  pupils 
of  both  public  and  private  schools  should  be  vaccinated.  The 
last  years  very  clearly  demonstrate  the  value  of  inoculation 
for  the  prevention  of  typhoid  fever.  This  has  been  com- 
pulsory in  the  United  States  Army  and  Navy,  and  it  now 
seems  clearly  evident  that  this  most  dreaded  and  fatal  dis- 
ease can  be  prevented.  How  soon  enlightened  public  sen- 
timent may  demand  this  treatment  remains  yet  to  be  seen. 
It  does  not  appear  that  the  hookworm  is  any  more  preva- 


70  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

lent  among  the  colored  population  than  the  white.  The 
remedy  for  this  disease  is  so  simple  and  certain  that  there 
is  no  excuse  for  not  having  it  applied. 

In  cases  of  diphtheria  and  scarlet  fever  a  strict  quar- 
antine should  be  established,  a  competent  physician  called 
as  soon  as  possible,  and  in  case  of  death  no  public  funeral 
should  be  allowed.  Suspicious  cases  of  sore  throat  should 
receive  prompt  attention,  and  children  thus  affected  should 
not  be  allowed  to  attend  public  schools  until  they  have 
been  examined  by  a  physician,  who  must  decide  whether 
the  case  is  dangerous.  The  question  of  venereal  diseases  is 
too  delicate  a  subject  to  be  publicly  discussed  in  an  assem- 
blage of  this  kind,  but  it  is  one  that  should  be  carefully 
studied  by  both  physicians,  preachers,  and  laymen.  If  the 
guilty  persons  were  the  only  sufferers,  it  would  give  less 
concern,  but  the  innocent  suffer  with  the  guilty  and  "the  sins 
of  the  fathers  are  visited  upon  the  children  unto  the  third 
and  fourth  generation." 


DESIRABLE  CIVIC  REFORMS  IN  THE  TREATMENT 
OF  THE  NEGRO 

PROFESSOR  W.   0.   SCROGGS,  PH.D.,  UNIVERSITY  OF  LOUISIANA, 
BATON  ROUGE,  LA. 

IT  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  in  1912,  for  the  first  time 
since  the  Civil  War,  the  Republican  national  platform  con- 
tained no  reference  to  the  problem  of  the  negro.  It  is 
equally  significant  that  the  platform  of  the  newborn  Pro- 
gressive party  was  also  silent  on  this  subject.  These  omis- 
sions have  been  bewailed  by  certain  types  of  negro  leaders 
and  also  by  some  of  their  Northern  sympathizers,  but  it 
seems  to  me  a  cause  for  rejoicing  that  Northern  politicians 
have  ceased  to  find  it  profitable  at  regular  four-year  inter- 
vals to  deplore  the  wrongs  of  the  black  man.  The  race 
problem  as  a  national  political  issue  will  not  probably  be 
relegated  to  that  limbo  whither  Anti-Masonry,  Know-Noth- 


DESIRABLE  CIVIC  REFORMS  71 

ingism  and  the  "bloody  shirt"  have  already  wended  their 
way.  If  the  politicians  of  the  South  would  only  follow  the 
example  of  their  Northern  brethren  and  leave  the  race 
question  severely  alone,  the  country  would  profit  still  fur- 
ther, though  a  few  individuals  now  holding  high  office  might 
have  to  retire  to  private  life. 

The  removal  of  the  race  question  from  politics  must  pre- 
cede any  far-reaching  reform  in  the  treatment  of  the  negro, 
and  the  sooner  this  is  accomplished  the  sooner  shall  we  be 
able  to  carry  out  one  part  of  the  program  of  this  Southern 
Sociological  Congress — "the  solving  of  the  race  question 
in  a  spirit  of  helpfulness  to  the  negro  and  of  equal  justice 
to  both  races."  If  we  as  members  of  this  Congress  are  to 
cooperate  in  promoting  this  spirt  of  equal  justice,  we  must 
necessarily  familiarize  ourselves  with  the  present  civic 
status  of  the  negro.  None  of  us,  I  am  sure,  will  have  the 
hardihood  to  affirm  that  the  negro's  treatment  as  a  member 
of  our  citizen-body  is  quite  what  it  should  be.  In  saying 
this  I  do  not  have  in  mind  any  criticism,  of  that  basic  fact 
in  the  relations  of  whites  and  blacks,  social  segregation. 
This  is  a  phenomenon  found  in  all  ages  and  in  all  countries 
where  members  of  diverse  races  have  been  brought  together 
in  anything  like  equal  numbers.  It  is  based  on  human  in- 
stinct and  confirmed  by  reason  and  experience ;  and  it  is  in 
vain  that  Northern  enthusiasts  may  rail  at  it  as  "senseless 
prejudice"  and  "unreasoning  antipathy."  In  doing  so  they 
run  counter  to  the  opinion  of  the  vast  majority  of  their 
fellow  citizens  and  thus  virtually  repudiate  that  very  de- 
mocracy which  they  advocate  so  effusively. 

The  Southern  people  have  accorded  the  negro  a  large 
measure  of  civil  rights.  He  enjoys  protection  of  life,  limb, 
and  property ;  he  has  in  the  South,  perhaps,  a  greater  meas- 
ure of  industrial  freedom  than  elsewhere  in  this  country; 
and  he  can  obtain  at  least  an  elementary  education  for  the 
asking.  But  comparative  well-being  is  not  necessarily  ab- 
solute well-being.  The  most  optimistic  leaders  of  the  race 
are  unable  to  overlook  the  dark  side  of  the  negro's  civic 
condition,  and  at  times  they  give  evidence  of  discourage- 
ment. Some  of  these  disheartening  aspects  of  the  problem 
I  shall  now  indicate. 


72  THE    HUMAN   WAY 

1.  The  negro  does  not  get  equal  accommodations  with 
the  whites  on  railway  passenger  trains,  although  he  pays 
the  same  fare.  The  laws  of  the  Southern  States  prescribe 
separate  accommodations  on  trains  for  whites  and  blacks, 
and  this  principle,  inasmuch  as  it  reduces  friction  between 
the  races,  is  for  the  best  interests  of  both.  Railways,  how- 
ever, while  providing  separate  accommodations,  have  not 
undertaken  to  make  these  equal  for  both  races.  A  short 
time  ago  I  made  a  journey  which  involved  travel  on  local 
trains  over  six  different  railway  lines,  and  on  only  one  of 
these  did  I  find  equal  conveniences  for  white  and  black.  On 
two  trains  the  whites  were  furnished  with  modern  vesti- 
buled  coaches,  while  the  negro  coaches  were  of  the  anti- 
quated open-platform  pattern,  very  dingy  and  much  less 
comfortable  than  the  cars  for  whites.  The  rear  half  of  one 
of  these  inferior  coaches  served  as  a  smoking  compartment 
for  white  men,  while  in  the  forward  half  negro  men  and 
women,  smokers  and  non-smokers,  were  herded  together, 
with  a  single  toilet  for  all.  Another  train  carried  its  white 
passengers  in  a  steel  coach  and  its  negro  patrons  in  a 
coach  of  wood.  When  I  commented  upon  this  to  a  gentle- 
man from  the  West,  he  remarked:  "Well,  I  guess  it  costs 
the  road  more  to  kill  a  white  man  than  a  nigger,  and  so  it 
takes  extra  precautions  for  us."  On  through  trains  with 
interstate  passengers  the  accommodations  for  the  two 
races  are  more  nearly  equal,  though  they  are  rarely  iden- 
tical. 

This  unfair  treatment  of  the  negro  by  common  car- 
riers in  inexcusable.  No  honest  Southerner  would  counte- 
nance a  white  merchant's  selling  his  negro  customers  infe- 
rior goods  at  the  same  price  at  which  he  supplied  his  white 
patrons  with  a  better  article.  Yet  we  allow  our  railways 
to  do  practically  the  same  thing  with  impunity.  Such  a 
policy  can  only  engender  bitterness  in  the  negro,  and  if  per- 
sisted in  it  may  put  in  jeopardy  the  whole  principle  of  racial 
segregation  in  interstate  travel.  The  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  has  already  been  appealed  to,  but  without  any 
appreciable  result.  The  most  serious  discrimination  is  found 
on  local  trains  and  on  branch  roads,  where  negro  patronage 


DESIRABLE   CIVIC  REFORMS  73 

is  generally  greatest.  The  remedy  lies  with  the  several 
States,  and  it  should  be  applied  as  a  measure  of  simple 
justice. 

2.  North   and   South   the   urban   negro   population   is 
forced  to  live  in  poorly  built,  unsanitary  dwellings,  on  filthy 
and  neglected  streets,  and  frequently  in  an  atmosphere  per- 
meated with  vice.    Abominable  as  his  housing  facilities  are, 
the  negro  is  compelled  to  pay  an  exorbitant  rent.    Southern 
real  estate  dealers  will  tell  you  that  negro  shacks  and  cabins 
are  among  the  best  investments,  often  yielding  from  15  to 
20  per  cent  on  their  cash  value.     This,  of  course,  is  only 
true  when  the  landlord  exercises  due  diligence  in  collecting 
his  rent.     The  negro  accepts  such  conditions  because  he 
wants  nothing  better.     There  can  be  no  effective  remedy 
save  through  the  gradual  raising  of  his  standard  of  living. 

3.  It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that  in  the  divi- 
sion of  the  school  fund  the  negro  is  not  fairly  treated.  Poli- 
ticians have  won  many  votes  by  advocating  that  the  moneys 
be  divided  in  proportion  to  the  direct  contributions  to  the 
treasury  by  the  respective  races.    They  are  either  ignorant, 
or  else  they  deliberately  blind  themselves  to  a  fact  that 
every  student  of  elementary  economics  fully  understands — 
namely,  that  the  taxpayer  is  not  always  the  tax-bearer.  The 
white  man  pays  many  taxes  whose  burdens  rest  upon  the 
black  man's  shoulders  either  wholly  or  in  part.     Whether 
the  man  who  hands  the  money  to  the  tax  collector  is  white 
or  black  is  a  matter  of  minor  importance.    That  our  taxes 
as  at  present  administered  fall  most  heavily  on  those  least 
able  to  pay  is  everywhere  recognized,  and  from  this  it  must 
follow  that  the  negro,  in  proportion  to  his  ability,  bears  a 
greater  burden  from  taxation  than  does  the  white  man. 
Professor  Charles  L.  Coon,  of  North  Carolina,  has  demon- 
strated that  the  education  of  the  negro  is  no  burden  on  the 
white  race,  at  least  in  the  States  where  statistics  are  avail- 
able for  determining  this  question.     Forty  per  cent  of  the 
children  of  school  age  in  eleven  States  are  negroes,  and  yet 
they  receive  only  fifteen  per  cent  of  the  school  fund.    Only 
fifty-three  per  cent  of  the  negro  children  of  school  age  in 
the  South  ever  enter  a  schoolhouse.    There  is  evidence  that 


74  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

in  some  communities  the  negro  is  actually  being  taxed  to 
support  white  schools. 

A  mere  policy  of  enlightened  selfishness  would  cause  us 
to  give  the  black  man  a  better  educational  opportunity. 
What  will  it  profit  us  to  spend  millions  in  the  uplift  of  one 
race  if  the  other  be  left  close  by  its  side  in  ignorance  and 
vice?  Separate  schools,  like  separate  coaches,  are  a  neces- 
sity; but  the  fair-minded  citizenship  of  the  South  should 
exert  itself  to  see  that  separation  does  not  produce  in- 
justice. 

4.  Inequalities  like  those  in  the  administration  of  the 
school  fund  are  even  more  noticeable  in  the  case  of  such 
municipal  improvements  as  parks,  driveways,  and  public 
libraries.    A  few  cities,  like  Jacksonville,  Fla.,  and  Louis- 
ville, Ky.,  provide  library  facilities  for  their  negro  citizens, 
but  generally  for  these  and  other  civic  improvements  like 
those  just  mentioned  the  black  man  must  contribute  his 
quota  and  expect  little  or  nothing  in  return.     North  and 
South,  nearly  all  the  special  activities  for  social  uplift,  such 
as  settlement  work,  day  nurseries,  and  fresh  air  funds,  seem 
to  overlook  the  negro,  though  there  are  many  notable  ex- 
ceptions. 

5.  Intelligent  and  highly  respectable  negroes  are  some- 
times disfranchised  for  no  other  reason  than  that  of  color. 
The  unfitness  of  the  race  for  the  exercise  of  the  suffrage 
at  the  time  it  was  bestowed  is  now  generally  admitted. 
To-day  the  negro  is  disfranchised  by  legal  restrictions  based 
on  illiteracy,  ownership  of  property,  payment  of  poll  tax, 
good  character,   good   understanding  of  the  constitution, 
military  service,  and  a  voting  grandfather.    The  exclusion 
of  the  ignorant  and  propertyless  from  the  ballot  is  not  to  be 
condemned  if  impartially  enforced;  but  the  good  character 
and  good  understanding  clauses  vest  too  much  arbitrary 
power  in  the  hands  of  the  registration  officers,  and  the 
"grandfather  clause"  is  a  piece  of  class  legislation  utterly 
opposed  to  American  ideals.     The  only  saving  feature  of 
this  last  measure  was  its  temporary  nature,  but  I  regret  to 
say  that  in  my  own  State  at  the  election  in  November, 
1912,  the  "grandfather  clause"  was  revived  by  constitu- 


DESIRABLE   CIVIC  REFORMS  75 

tional  amendment  until  September,  1913,  and  a  premium 
was  thus  placed  on  white  illiteracy. 

There  are  those  who  would  disfranchise  every  negro 
regardless  of  his  fitness  for  the  ballot,  and  their  name  is 
legion.  Supported  by  such  sentiment  in  their  communities, 
registration  officers  have  even  gone  to  the  extreme  of  re- 
jecting negro  college  graduates  while  registering  the  most 
degraded  of  white  men.  The  suffrage  should  be  held  before 
the  negro  as  a  reward  of  character.  If  our  present  elec- 
toral laws  are  properly  enforced,  every  worthy  colored  man 
can  have  the  ballot. 

6.  The  negro  is  accorded  legal,  but  nevertheless  unequal, 
treatment  in  our  courts  of  law.  It  is  not  that  the  negro  is 
dealt  with  unlawfully,  but  that  the  punishment  of  the  negro 
rests  on  a  different  basis  from  that  of  the  white  man.  It 
is  not  that  the  negro  gets  more  than  his  legal  deserts,  but 
that  the  white  man  gets  less.  This  is  due  partly  to  racial 
animosity  and  partly  to  the  fact  that  the  negro  has  little 
money  and  very  few  influential  friends.  The  poor  and  ob- 
scure white  man  in  all  parts  of  the  country  too  often  suffers 
in  the  same  way.  It  is  further  claimed  that  a  negro  lawyer 
does  not  have  a  fair  chance  before  a  white  jury  when  the 
opposing  attorney  is  a  white  man,  and  that  a  negro  litigant 
is  discriminated  against  when  his  opponent  and  the  jury 
are  both  white.  Juries  are  sometimes  loath  to  convict  white 
men  on  the  testimony  of  negroes,  and  grand  juries  likewise 
have  failed  to  find  true  bills  on  such  evidence.  That  the 
proportion  of  convictions  is  greater  and  the  terms  of  sen- 
tence longer  for  negroes  than  for  whites  has  been  urged 
by  Southern  Governors  in  justification  of  their  extensive 
use  of  the  pardoning  power.  Time  and  again  we  read  in 
the  papers  of  the  execution  of  "the  first  white  man  ever 
hanged  in  this  county."  These  facts  seem  to  indicate  that 
the  negro  experiences  the  full  rigor  of  the  law,  while  in 
the  case  of  the  white  man  justice  is  likely  to  be  over-tem- 
pered with  mercy. 

As  a  remedy  for  this  condition  it  has  been  proposed 
that  negroes  should  serve  on  juries  to  try  members  of  their 
own  race,  but  those  who  urge  that  the  law  should  take  no 


76  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

account  of  color  must  find  it  hard  to  defend  such  a  propo- 
sition with  consistency.  The  average  Southerner  demurs  to 
this  proposal  because  he  has  come  to  believe  that  there 
exists  a  kind  of  freemasonry  among  negroes  that  causes 
them  to  shield  one  another  from  the  consequences  of  their 
acts;  but  in  spite  of  this  widespread  belief  it  has  been  ob- 
served that  the  negro  himself  sometimes  prefers  to  place 
his  fate  in  the  hands  of  a  white  jury. 

7.  Finally,  the  negro  is  too  frequently  the  victim  of  mob 
violence.  With  sorrow  must  we  confess  that  lynching  is  the 
evil  par  infamie  of  the  Southland.  In  1912  seventeen  States 
were  disgraced  by  lynching  atrocities,  and  the  evil  was 
not  confined  entirely  to  our  section.  Montana,  North  Da- 
kota, Oklahoma,  Oregon,  and  Wyoming  each  furnished  an 
example.  It  is  no  consolation,  however,  to  know  that  in 
this  respect  the  Southern  States  have  some  company.  The 
most  deplorable  fact  in  connection  with  lynching  is  the 
wide  hearing  given  to  its  defenders.  The  opponents  of  such 
lawlessness,  who  constitute  practically  all  the  enlightened 
people  of  the  South,  have  shown  a  strange  timidity  in  voic- 
ing their  sentiments,  while  leather-lunged  demagogues, 
posing  as  champions  of  Southern  womanhood,  have  con- 
doned and  advocated  it  from  one  end  of  the  continent  to  the 
other.  The  only  ground  upon  which  they  defend  lynching 
is  that  it  furnishes  protection  to  Southern  women,  but  our 
statistics  show  that  75  per  cent  of  our  lynchings  are  for 
crimes  other  than  the  one  they  are  supposed  to  avenge. 
Happily,  the  number  of  lynchings  is  slowly  but  surely  de- 
creasing. As  compared  with  the  black  year  1892,  when 
there  were  225,  the  number  in  1912  was  only  sixty-five.  Of 
these,  only  ten  were  for  what  is  wrongly  called  "the  usual 
crime,"  and  two  were  for  attempts  to  commit  that  crime. 
In  the  first  three  months  of  1913  there  were  thirteen  known 
lynchings,  and  not  one  of  these  was  for  a  crime  against 
women. 

The  crime  of  lynching  is  undoubtedly  the  source  of  more 
irritation,  distrust,  and  despair  on  the  part  of  the  negro 
than  the  sum  total  of  all  the  other  ills  to  which  black  flesh 
is  heir.  But  its  degrading  effect  is  even  worse  upon  the 


DESIRABLE   CIVIC  REFORMS  77 

white  man  who  sanctions  it  and  upon  him  who  joins  the 
mob.  The  former  is  an  anarchist  and  the  latter  a  murderer. 
In  the  face  of  such  prevalence  of  the  mob  spirit  among  the 
ignorant  masses,  why  have  bench  and  bar,  preacher  and 
teacher  so  long  remained  silent  ?  When  will  Southern  man- 
hood muster  sufficient  courage  to  challenge  effectively  the 
sovereignty  of  the  mob? 

In  considering  remedies  for  these  untoward  conditions 
it  is  easy  to  say  what  should  be  done,  but  difficult  to  indi- 
cate the  way  to  do  it.  Our  hope  lies  in  further  education 
for  white  and  black,  in  cooperation  between  the  best  ele- 
ments of  both  races,  in  greater  publicity  for  those  whose 
views  are  rational,  and  last,  but  not  least,  in  the  develop- 
ment of  an  infinite  amount  of  patience.  Civic  progress  for 
the  negro  is  to  be  secured  by  educational  and  economic  im- 
provement rather  than  by  political  methods.  His  condi- 
tion as  a  citizen  will  improve  with  his  economic  progress; 
his  economic  progress  is  dependent  upon  an  increase  of 
his  wants;  and  an  increase  of  his  wants  will  come  with 
better  education.  Where  the  white  man  is  guilty  of  injus- 
tice no  merely  external  reforms  will  suffice.  Such  injustice 
is  an  outward  sign  of  a  lack  of  inward  grace.  There  must 
be  a  reform  of  men's  souls.  Better  education,-  higher  moral 
ideals,  a  general  awakening  of  mind  and  spirit,  the  sub- 
stitution of  reason  for  prejudice  and  tradition,  the  socializa- 
tion of  religion — these  are  the  fundamental  needs  of  the 
hour.  Above  all,  we  must  realize  that  as  a  race  we  cannot 
live  wholly  unto  ourselves ;  that  if  the  black  man  is  sinking 
we  are  not  rising ;  that  if  he  is  going  backward  we  are  not 
going  forward;  and  finally,  that  no  social  regime  can  long 
endure  that  is  not  founded  on  justice. 


78  THE   HUMAN    WAY 


RURAL  EDUCATION  AND  SOCIAL  EFFICIENCY 

JACKSON  DAVIS,  STATE  SUPERVISOR  RURAL  ELEMENTARY 
SCHOOLS,  RICHMOND,  VA. 

IN  March,  1908,  in  Henrico  County,  Va.,  there  sat 
around  a  table  a  group  of  men  who  had  been  invited  by  the 
County  Superintendent  of  Schools  to  consider  ways  of  im- 
proving the  negro  schools.  A  meeting  of  the  negro  teachers 
had  just  been  held,  the  first  meeting  called  to  give  them  aid 
and  encouragement.  Dr.  H.  B.  Frissell,  Principal  of  Hamp- 
ton Institute,  who  was  among  the  party,  told  of  some  exten- 
sion work  that  had  been  done  by  Hampton  in  sending  out  a 
young  woman  to  visit  the  schools  of  Gloucester  County  to 
help  the  teachers  adapt  their  work  to  the  needs  of  the 
children  and  to  the  home  life  of  the  people.  After  consid- 
erable discussion  the  conference  ended,  but  there  was  left 
a  precipitate  of  definite  ideas.  One  was  that  a  trained 
negro  teacher  would  be  very  helpful  to  the  other  teachers 
in  visiting  their  schools  and  placing  more  definite  plans  of 
work  before  them.  Another  was  that  such  a  teacher  might 
be  secured  who  would  introduce  cooking  and  sewing  and  in 
some  way  help  to  place  the  life  of  the  average  negro  home 
on  a  more  satisfactory  basis  in  the  elemental  virtues  of 
good  citizenship.  The  plan  to  engage  such  a  teacher  for 
the  twenty-three  negro  schools  of  the  county  seemed  good 
to  the  school  board,  but  it  was  not  felt  that  the  county  could 
afford  experiments  in  negro  education.  The  Jeanes  Fund 
for  Negro  Rural  Schools  had  recently  been  established  and 
Dr.  James  H.  Dillard  was  in  charge  of  its  administration. 
The  situation  was  laid  before  him  and  he  heartily  approved 
the  plan  and  agreed  to  pay  the  salary  of  the  supervising 
industrial  teacher. 

The  county  was  fortunate  in  securing  for  this  work  Vir- 
ginia E.  Randolph,  who  had  taught  a  rural  school  in  the 
county  for  thirteen  years  and  by  her  devoted  and  tireless 
efforts  had  transformed  the  shabby  little  schoolhouse  into  a 
neatly  whitewashed  two-room  building,  with  attractive 


RURAL   EDUCATION  AND   SOCIAL   EFFICIENCY  79 

grounds,  which  served  as  a  school,  Sunday  school,  and  cen- 
ter of  all  good  work  for  the  neighborhood.  She  immediate- 
ly set  to  work  to  visit  the  negro  schools,  meeting  the  people 
and  teachers  and  asking  their  cooperation.  The  people  were 
invited  to  the  schools,  improvement  leagues  were  organized, 
and  soon  all  schools  began  to  take  on  a  different  appearance. 
Simple  repairs  were  made,  rooms  and  windows  were  regu- 
larly washed,  stoves  were  polished,  walks  laid  off,  and 
flowers  set  out  in  the  yards.  Regular  periods  were  set  aside 
for  sewing,  mat-making,  cooking,  and  various  kinds  of  work 
suggested  by  materials  at  hand. 

This  was  the  origin  of  what  Dr.  Dillard  called  the  "Hen- 
rico  Plan"  of  industrial  training  and  supervision  for  negro 
rural  schools,  and  he  adopted  this  method  very  largely  in 
administering  the  Jeanes  Fund  in  the  Southern  States.  The 
supervising  industrial  teacher  is  appointed  by  the  County 
Superintendent  and  works  under  his  direction  in  as  many  of 
the  rural  schools  as  may  be  reached.  The  work  thus  inau- 
gurated has  steadily  grown  both  in  effectiveness  and  extent. 
It  was  carried  on  in  one  hundred  and  nineteen  counties  in 
the  various  Southern  States  last  year  by  aid  of  the  Jeanes 
Fund  in  cooperation  with  county  superintendents  and  school 
boards.  In  Virginia  there  were  last  year  seventeen  super- 
vising teachers  working  in  eighteen  counties.  Five  new 
counties  have  taken  it  up  this  year,  one  county  paying  half 
the  salary  of  the  industrial  teacher  and  another  county  pay- 
ing the  whole  salary  from  local  funds.  Almost  every  county 
makes  provision  for  the  traveling  expenses  of  the  teacher. 

A  brief  summary  of  the  work  in  these  Virginia  counties 
shows  the  following  results :  In  the  eighteen  counties  there 
were  469  negro  schools  and  299  of  these  were  visited  reg- 
ularly by  the  17  supervisors.  The  length  of  term  ranged 
from  five  to  nine  months,  but  an  average  of  six  months  was 
maintained  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  121  schools  with  a 
short  term  extended  the  term  for  one  month.  Nine  new 
buildings  were  erected  and  twelve  enlarged  at  a  combined 
cost  of  $6,268.15,  which  does  not  include  labor  and  materials 
given.  Twelve  schools  were  painted,  69  whitewashed,  37 
sanitary  outhouses  were  built,  and  102  schools  used  indi- 
vidual drinking  cups.  Three  hundred  and  forty-eight  im- 


80  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

provement  leagues  were  organized,  and  they  raised  in  cash 
for  school  improvement  $13,744.16. 

The  entire  cost  of  supervision  in  these  counties  was  less 
than  $7,000,  so  that  these  teachers  brought  into  the  school 
funds  twice  the  cost  of  their  salaries  and  expenses.  Nearly 
every  school  that  was  built  or  enlarged  was  the  result  of  the 
efforts  of  the  improvement  leagues  cooperating  with  the 
local  school  boards,  which  have  dealt  more  liberally  with 
the  negro  schools  since  the  negroes  have  shown  such  a  dis- 
position to  help  themselves. 

But  these  figures,  as  illuminating  as  they  are,  do  not  tell 
all  the  story.  Back  of  this  record  of  progress  there  is  a 
new  spirit  of  self-help,  a  new  interest  in  the  home,  the  farm, 
and  the  country  neighborhood,  and  it  marks  the  beginning 
of  a  cooperative  movement  for  improvement  in  other  ways. 
The  teaching  has  been  stronger,  the  attendance  has  in- 
creased, and  the  work  of  the  schools  has  been  more  practical 
than  ever  before. 

Superintendent  Coggins  writes  of  the  work  in  Charles 
City  County  as  follows : 

With  reference  to  the  work  in  Charles  City,  I  can  say  that  the 
County  School  Board  in  its  last  meeting  said  that  the  results  were  such 
that  they  could  not  think  of  giving  it  up.  All  the  men  are  very  much 
pleased  and  are  heartily  supporting  it. 

I  can  see  here  a  new  interest  in  home  life  and  an  effort  is  being 
generally  made  to  make  home  more  comfortable  and  beautiful.  Clean- 
liness and  politeness  with  industry  have  been  emphasized  with  good 
results.  A  new  spirit  is  seen  among  the  teachers  and  a  more  earnest 
effort  is  being  made  to  make  their  work  mean  something  to  the  com- 
munity in  which  they  teach.  The  work  as  it  is  being  done  here  is 
encouraging  to  the  entire  citizenship. 

In  most  of  the  counties  at  the  close  of  the  term  an  ex- 
hibit is  held  of  the  industrial  work  done  in  the  schools.  The 
exhibit  is  usually  held  at  the  county  seat  or  at  the  business 
center  of  the  county.  An  attractive  program  is  provided, 
reports  of  improvements  at  the  various  schools  are  made, 
aftd  simple  prizes  awarded.  These  exhibits  have  been  of 
great  importance  in  popularizing  this  type  of  education,  in 
encouraging  the  negro  children,  and  in  demonstrating  to 
the  white  citizens  the  usefulness  of  this  training. 


RURAL  EDUCATION  AND  SOCIAL  EFFICIENCY  81 

The  introduction  of  industrial  work  into  the  negro 
schools  has  not  always  been  easy.  Many  of  the  parents 
object  to  their  children  doing  anything  at  school  but  study 
and  recite  from  books.  In  many  cases  the  preacher  has 
publicly  opposed  it,  but  more  often  he  has  joined  with  the 
supervising  teacher  in  her  efforts  for  the  schools.  In  one 
county  after  the  teacher  began  work  this  issue  was  raised, 
and  the  preacher  took  up  the  cause  and  urged  the  people  to 
contribute  funds  for  better  schoolhouses  and  for  equip- 
ment and  material  for  industrial  work.  In  his  exhortation 
he  was  attacked  by  members  of  his  congregation  who  dif- 
fered from  him.  The  issue  got  into  the  local  papers  and 
became  so  warm  that  a  vote  was  taken  asking  the  preacher 
to  resign.  By  this  time,  however,  the  white  people  realized 
the  situation  and  the  courage  of  the  preacher,  and  they  with 
his  faithful  followers  prevailed  on  the  congregation  to  with- 
draw their  action.  To-day  this  preacher  is  a  real  leader 
in  the  county,  with  the  confidence  of  all  classes.  The  colored 
schools  have  made  great  improvement  in  all  departments 
and  the  industrial  classes  are  doing  regular  and  effective 
work. 

In  other  communities  the  opposition  lasts  longer.  Re- 
cently I  visited  a  school  where  the  teacher  is  unable  to  have 
any  regular  day  or  period  for  industrial  work,  because  if 
the  parents  know  of  it  they  will  keep  their  children  at  home 
on  these  days.  In  another  county  the  teacher  was  speaking 
to  a  public  meeting  in  a  schoolhouse  at  night.  In  the  course 
of  her  remarks  she  condemned  the  common  dances  and 
festivals  which  nearly  always  resulted  in  drinking  and  a 
cutting  or  shooting  affray,  and  urged  amusements  of  a  dif- 
ferent kind.  This  so  enraged  some  of  the  young  people  that 
from  the  darkness  outside  a  bottle  of  ink  was  thrown 
through  the  window  at  the  teacher  and  its  contents  emptied 
on  her  dress.  The  court  records  show  that  nearly  all  of  the 
negroes  in  the  penitentiary  or  jail  from  that  county  were 
there  as  a  result  of  a  cutting  or  shooting  affray  at  these  dis- 
orderly gatherings.  Examples  could  be  multiplied  to  show 
the  courage  and  devotion  of  the  supervising  and  industrial 
teachers  in  their  contact  with  the  ignorant  masses  of  their 
race. 


82  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

One  of  the  most  interesting  developments  of  the  work  i? 
the  cooperation  of  the  supervising  industrial  teacher  with 
the  farm  demonstration  agent  in  working  during  the  sum- 
mer months  with  clubs  of  girls  in  raising  home  gardens  and 
canning  the  vegetables  and  fruits  for  winter  use.  At  the 
close  of  the  school  term  they  organize  girls'  home  garden 
clubs,  visit  the  girls  in  their  homes,  and  meet  them  in 
groups,  giving  them  practical  instructions  for  their  gardens 
and  teaching  cooking  and  sewing  lessons  in  the  homes.  In 
many  ways  the  summer  work  of  these  teachers  has  proved 
of  even  greater  value  than  their  work  with  the  schools,  for 
they  are  touching  directly  the  homes  of  the  people  and 
bringing  about  improvements  there  that  are  having  a  far- 
reaching  effect.  In  the  summer  of  1911  this  work  was 
started  in  four  counties.  The  gardens  were  cultivated  with 
varying  success,  and  in  all  the  girls  put  up  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  teachers  about  1,000  glass  jars  of  vegetables. 
The  tabulated  statement  shows  that  some  of  the  work  ac- 
complished in  eight  counties  during  the  summer  of  1912 
was  as  follows:  267  girls  in  garden  clubs,  202  gardens 
planted,  3,946  jars  canned  by  girls  and  6,006  by  mothers. 

A  page  from  the  report  of  one  of  the  teachers  indicates 
the  character  of  the  work : 

During  the  month  have  put  up  603  quarts  of  fruit  and  68  quarts 
of  vegetables.  Total,  671.  Have  dried  12  pounds  of  apples. 

During  the  season  769  quarts  of  fruit  have  been  put  up  and  68 
quarts  of  vegetables.  Total,  837  quarts.  The  late  bean  and  tomato 
crops  are  yet  to  be  canned. 

Two  of  the  club  girls,  aged  11  and  14,  made  all  the  yeast  and  bread 
for  their  respective  families.  Another  girl,  aged  12  years,  but  who  is 
not  strong  enough  to  make  bread  for  her  very  large  family,  supplies 
her  own  and  her  next  neighbor's  family  with  yeast. 

In  most  homes  the  club  girls  are  doing  the  entire  canning  for 
the  family  and  some  for  outsiders. 

The  girls  learned  to  do  those  things  in  our  summer  clubs.  Their 
mothers  are  very  much  pleased  to  be  thus  relieved  of  these  duties. 
Our  clubs  are  never  at  a  loss  for  place  for  next  meeting.  Invitations 
usually  come  two  and  three  weeks  ahead. 

In  the  summer  of  1912  I  took  a  trip  through  Chesterfield 
County,  revisiting  some  of  the  same  homes  that  I  saw  on  a 
similar  trip  the  previous  year  when  the  work  was  started. 


RURAL   EDUCATION  AND   SOCIAL   EFFICIENCY  83 

Most  of  the  homes  are  on  small  plots  varying  from  five  to 
twenty-five  acres,  and  are  neither  painted  nor  whitewashed. 
The  men  work  out  on  so-called  public  works  or  as  farm 
hands.  With  poor  dwellings  to  start  with  and  a  handicap 
of  poverty,  any  improvements  will  necessarily  be  slow.  The 
first  year  many  of  the  gardens  were  allowed  to  grow  up  in 
weeds,  or  were  destroyed  by  chickens  or  cows.  In  other 
words,  the  gardens  were  about  as  shiftless  as  the  homes. 
All  the  gardens  were  very  much  better  cultivated  the  second 
year  and  I  did  not  see  a  single  one  that  had  been  neglected. 
The  chickens  were  either  kept  out  by  a  good  fence,  or  the 
garden  was  put  far  enough  from  the  house  not  to  be  both- 
ered by  them.  Practically  every  girl  has  a  garden  for  the 
late  fall.  Over  1,700  jars  of  vegetables  were  put  up,  about 
six  times  as  many  as  were  put  up  in  the  whole  season  the 
first  year. 

I  saw  several  homes  that  were  rebuilt  or  enlarged,  but 
as  yet  little  or  no  whitewashing  has  been  done.  At  one 
home  that  we  visited  the  girl  was  absent,  but  her  mother 
showed  us  a  long  row  of  jars  of  fruit  and  vegetables  which 
she  had  put  up,  and  then  brought  out  some  dried  apples 
which  she  had  also  put  up  under  the  teacher's  directions. 
Then  she  brought  out  some  that  she  herself  had  dried  in 
the  traditional  way.  Her  daughter's  work  was  in  every  way 
superior,  and  she  said  that  she  was  going  to  use  the  new 
method  in  the  future. 

A  few  days  later  I  took  a  similar  trip  through  Charles 
City  County  with  the  county  superintendent  and  the  indus- 
trial teacher.  The  negroes  in  Charles  City  are  more  pros- 
perous than  in  Chesterfield,  and  the  homes  that  we  visited 
were  on  average  small  farms.  I  was  struck  by  the  fact  that 
practically  every  home  was  neatly  whitewashed,  together 
with  many  of  the  fences  and  outbuildings,  and  that  every- 
thing about  the  homes  seemed  to  be  in  good  repair.  Super- 
intendent Coggin  told  me  that  this  had  been  very  largely 
brought  about  by  the  teacher  in  the  two  years  in  which  she 
had  been  working  in  the  county.  He  said  that  negro  homes 
of  this  type  used  to  be  the  exception,  but  that  now  they 
were  the  rule  in  Charles  City  County.  We  found  back  yards 
and  back  porches  thoroughly  clean.  The  gardens  were 


84  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

mostly  well  fenced  and  cultivated.  The  teacher's  services 
were  very  much  in  demand  by  the  older  people  who  wanted 
to  learn  better  ways  of  canning. 

At  one  home  that  we  visited  a  widow  and  several  chil- 
dren were  living.  The  father  had  recently  died  of  tuber- 
culosis. During  his  sickness  the  teacher  had  visited  the 
home  and  shown  the  mother  the  necessary  precautions  to 
take  in  order  to  prevent  the  infection  of  the  rest  of  the 
family.  By  her  help  all  the  sanitary  measures  were  carried 
out  and  the  other  members  of  the  family  are  saved  from 
the  disease. 

Our  trip  ended  at  the  negro  cemetery,  where  there  was 
a  gathering  to  clean  it  up.  It  needed  it,  but  the  gathering 
was  an  example  of  neighborhood  cooperation  expressive  of 
a  general  desire  to  clean  up  things  and  make  the  county  a 
better  place  to  live  in  as  well  as  to  die  in. 

These  two  trips  convinced  me  of  the  distinct  improve- 
ment over  the  work  of  the  first  year.  It  is  impossible  to 
estimate  the  helpfulness  of  the  visits  of  these  teachers  to 
the  homes  of  the  negroes,  or  to  value  their  influence  on  the 
girls  who  belong  to  the  garden  clubs.  The  girls  and  some 
of  the  mothers  are  getting  a  kind  of  education  that  is  hav- 
ing a  marked  effect  upon  their  homes.  It  meant  a  great 
deal  for  the  teacher  to  get  the  girls  and  their  parents  in 
Chesterfield  to  take  the  home  garden  seriously — to  put  it 
where  the  chickens  would  not  destroy  it,  or  put  a  good  fence 
around  it,  then  to  cultivate  it  approximately  near  to  exact 
directions.  The  good  results  have  demonstrated  that  it  pays 
to  take  care  of  the  garden,  and  in  learning  to  do  this  they 
are  learning  to  put  more  thought  and  skill  into  what  has 
been  household  drudgery,  but  what  may  become  household 
art. 

I  have  never  seen  more  grateful  appreciation  than  was 
shown  to  these  teachers  in  the  homes  which  they  have 
helped,  except  possibly  that  shown  by  the  negro  farmer  to 
the  demonstrator  who  has  helped  him  to  double  his  corn 
crop. 

It  will  be  seen  that  some  of  the  teachers  during  the  sum- 
mer do  much  of  their  work  with  the  women  in  their  coun- 
ties. The  following  letter  has  come  into  my  hands  from  the 


THE   WORK   OF   THE   JEANES  AND  SLATER   FUNDS         85 

Women's  Home  Improvement  Club,  which  was  organized 
by  the  teacher  in  Gloucester  County.  It  shows  both  the 
character  of  the  work  which  has  been  done  and  the  interest 
which  they  have  put  into  it : 

In  early  spring  Mrs.  Isabella  Smith  called  us  together  and  spoke  of 
the  many  things  we  as  housekeepers  might  accomplish  toward  im- 
proving our  homes,  if  we  would  organize  as  a  club  and  start  to  work. 
The  first  suggestion  was  to  look  to  the  canning  of  vegetables  and  fruits. 
As  an  outcome  we  can  safely  say  that  more  berries,  vegetables,  and 
fruits  have  been  canned  and  more  dried  than  ever  before  in  this 
community. 

A  new  inspiration  has  gone  out  from  one  housekeeper  to  another, 
and  one  seems  to  be  vieing  with  the  other  as  to  who  will  have  the 
greatest  number  to  report.  Now  that  the  canning  season  is  fairly 
over,  we  are  turning  our  attention  to  handicrafts.  Some  have  started 
doormats,  some  table  mats,  and  some  picture  frames.  We  find  a  great 
deal  of  pleasure  in  our  work  and  feel  it  a  blessing  to  have  one  in  our 
midst  who  is  capable  of  instructing  us  in  so  many  ways. 

We  ask  an  interest  in  your  prayers  that  much  success  may  attend 
our  efforts.  We  take  God  as  our  great  leader. 

Done  by  order  of  the  W.  H.  I.  Club. 


THE  WORK  OF  THE  JEANES  AND  SLATER  FUNDS 

PROFESSOR  B.  C.  CALDWELL,  NATCHITOCHES,  LA. 

THESE  organizations  have  the  same  purpose,  the  training 
of  the  negro  youth  in  the  Southern  States.  And  they  have 
the  same  director,  the  president  of  the  Jeanes  Fund  being 
also  the  director  of  the  Slater  Fund,  and  the  same  offices  in 
New  York  and  New  Orleans.  They  have  separate,  though 
overlapping,  boards  of  trustees. 

The  Jeanes  work  is  confined  to  the  rural  schools,  and  is 
almost  entirely  industrial.  Most  of  the  Slater  revenue  is 
spent  for  secondary  and  higher  education,  mostly  normal 
and  academic,  partly  vocational  and  industrial. 

The  Jeanes  work,  now  in  its  fifth  year,  entered  a  new 
field.  From  the  start  it  aimed  to  reach  the  "school  in  the 
background,"  the  remote  country  school  for  negro  children, 


86  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

out  of  sight  back  in  the  sticks,  down  the  bayou,  up  in  the 
piny  woods,  along  the  sea  marsh,  or  out  in  the  gullied  wil- 
derness of  abandoned  plantations.  Nearly  all  these  schools 
were  taught  in  shabby  buildings,  mostly  old  churches ;  some 
in  cabins  and  country  stores,  a  few  in  deserted  dwellings.  I 
have  seen  one  in  Alabama  taught  in  a  sawmill  shed,  one  in 
Arkansas  in  a  dry  kiln,  one  in  Georgia  in  a  peach-packing 
shed,  one  in  Louisiana  in  a  stranded  flatboat,  and  one  in 
Texas  in  a  sheepfold. 

For  the  most  part  these  schools  were  taught  by  untrained 
teachers,  without  any  sort  of  supervision.  The  equipment 
was  meager,  the  pay  smaller,  and  the  term  short.  The  Jeanes 
Fund  undertook  to  send  trained  industrial  teachers  into  this 
field,  to  help  the  people  improve  the  physical  conditions,  and 
the  teachers  to  better  the  instruction  given. 

The  teachers  employed  in  this  work  are  trained  in  some 
kind  of  industrial  work,  domestic  or  vocational.  Most  of 
them  teach  sewing,  next  in  number  are  those  who  teach 
cooking,  some  are  graduate  nurses,  some  truck  gardeners, 
some  laundresses,  some  basketmakers,  some  farmers  and 
dairymen.  And  blacksmithing,  carpentry,  shoemaking,  mat- 
tress-making, baking,  and  farming  are  in  the  list  of  indus- 
tries taught  by  these  teachers. 

For  the  current  year  there  are  120  Jeanes  teachers  at 
work  in  120  counties  of  eleven  Southern  States,  Maryland 
to  Texas.  Each  teacher  visits  a  number  of  the  country 
schools,  gives  a  lesson  in  some  industry,  plans  with  the  regu- 
lar teacher  to  give  succeeding  lessons  in  her  absence,  organ- 
izes parents'  clubs,  starts  a  movement  for  better  school 
equipment  or  a  longer  term,  counsels  the  local  teacher  about 
her  daily  training,  and  stirs  the  community  to  united  effort 
to  better  the  school. 

Although  paid  by  the  Jeanes  Fund,  these  teachers  are 
named  by  the  County  Superintendent  and  are  members  of 
his  teaching  corps  just  like  the  other  teachers,  and  work 
under  his  direction.  In  many  counties  this  spring  the  indus- 
trial teacher  gathered  specimens  of  sewing,  baking,  bas- 
ketry, chair-caning,  mattresses,  garden  truck,  carpentry, 
and  furniture  from  all  the  schools  of  the  county,  and  held 


THE   WORK   OF  THE   JEANES   AND   SLATER   FUNDS         87 

exhibits  at  courthouses,  superintendents'  offices,  or  other 
central  points.  Great  numbers  of  school  officials,  white  and 
colored  school  patrons,  and  teachers  visited  the  exhibits. 

The  industrial  teachers  are  graduates  of  Hampton,  Tus- 
kegee,  Petersburg,  Pratt  Institute,  Cheney,  Fisk,  Atlanta, 
and  kindred  schools.  All  of  them  are  negroes.  Their  salaries 
range  from  $40  to  $75,  and  their  terms  from  six  to  nine 
months  a  year. 

At  the  outset  the  entire  expense  of  this  industrial  work 
was  borne  by  the  Jeanes  Fund.  After  a  year  or  two  the 
county  school  boards  began  contributing,  sometimes  paying 
the  traveling  expenses  of  the  teacher,  sometimes  buying 
sewing  machines,  ranges,  washtubs,  sometimes  renting 
plots  of  ground  for  farm  and  garden  work.  Last  year  one 
or  two  counties  took  over  the  entire  expense  of  the  work, 
and  fifteen  or  twenty  undertook  to  pay  half  or  part  of  the 
teacher's  salary. 

The  Slater  Fund  from  the  beginning  has  devoted  most 
of  its  means  to  the  higher  education  of  negro  youth,  mainly 
with  the  purpose  of  training  teachers  for  the  primary 
schools.  But  almost  from  the  start  it  has  contributed  to 
public  school  work  in  town  and  city,  with  the  same  general 
end  in  view,  devoting  its  entire  contribution  to  these  schools 
to  the  establishment  of  industrial  training  in  public  schools. 

At  this  time  more  than  three-fourths  of  the  Slater  money 
is  still  applied  to  higher  and  urban  school  work.  But  for 
two  or  three  years  past  it  has  been  experimenting  with 
some  new  and  promising  work  in  the  country. 

Four  years  ago  a  parish  superintendent  in  Louisiana 
applied  to  the  Slater  Fund  for  assistance  in  establishing  a 
county  high  school  for  negro  children.  Almost  at  the  same 
time  a  county  superintendent  in  Arkansas,  one  in  Virginia, 
and  one  in  Mississippi  proposed  substantially  the  same 
thing.  It  was  the  purpose  in  each  case  to  train  teachers 
for  the  schools  of  the  county. 

Trained  teachers  cannot  be  had  for  the  meager  salary 
paid  country  negro  teachers.  And  each  of  these  superin- 
tendents hoped  to  get  a  regular  and  fairly  good  supply  of 
teachers  trained  to  do  the  work  needed  in  that  county. 


88  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

Supt.  A.  C.  Lewis,  of  Tangipahoa  Parish,  La.,  was  the 
first  to  undertake  to  establish  such  a  school.  He  named  it 
the  Parish  Training  School  for  Colored  Children,  and  lo- 
cated it  at  Kentwood,  a  little  village  in  the  piny  woods 
part  of  the  parish.  The  parish  school  board  furnished  the 
teachers  and  equipment,  the  Brooks-Scanlon  Lumber  Co. 
furnished  the  house  and  ten  acres  of  land,  and  the  Slater 
Fund  agreed  to  give  $500  a  year  for  three  years.  The 
school  is  now  in  its  second  year,  and  promises  to  render 
valuable  service  to  the  parish. 

Three  similar  schools  have  since  been  established:  one 
in  Newton  County,  Miss.,  in  which  the  county,  the  town  of 
Newton,  and  an  organization  of  colored  people  contributed, 
and  the  Slater  Fund  pledged  $500  for  three  years;  at 
Hope,  Ark.,  a  town  school  supported  by  State  and  local 
funds,  was  converted  into  a  central  training  school  (not 
county,  because  there  is  no  county  school  body),  and  the 
funds  were  raised  by  the  town,  the  local  cotton  men,  and 
the  white  and  colored  citizens  individually,  with  the  same 
Slater  contribution;  and  in  Sabine  Parish,  La.,  a  large 
community  school  seven  miles  in  the  country  was  made  the 
parish  training  school,  with  parish  authority  and  support, 
and  liberal  contributions  of  the  timber  interests  owning 
land  all  around  the  school,  with  the  same  Slater  contribu- 
tion of  $500  a  year. 

There  are  no  precedents  to  follow  in  this  work.  Every 
county  in  the  South  has  felt  the  need  of  fairly  well  trained 
teachers  in  its  negro  rural  schools.  But  so  far  as  we  know 
this  is  the  first  time  that  superintendents  have  deliberately 
planned  to  get  them  by  training  them  at  home. 

Each  county  will  have  to  feel  its  way  toward  the  end 
in  view.  All  of  them  are  making  the  training  schools  dis- 
tinctly industrial  and  agricultural  all  the  way  through  the 
course  offered ;  and  some  are  already  giving  class  work  and 
handcraft  of  real  merit.  It  will  take  several  years  to  work 
out  the  plan ;  and  local  school  authorities  will  give  their  in- 
dividual stamp  to  it.  But  thus  far  it  looks  good,  and  the 
end  in  view  goes  to  the  very  heart  of  the  whole  business  of 
negro  public  schools. 


NEED  AND  VALUE  OF  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION     89 

I  need  not  speak  of  the  well-known  schools,  Hampton, 
Tuskegee,  and  Fisk,  to  which  the  larger  part  of  the  Slater 
money  is  devoted.  But  in  two  of  these  and  in  several  State 
normal  schools  the  Slater  Fund  contributes  to  the  mainte- 
nance of  summer  schools  for  teachers,  offering  good  train- 
ing, academic  and  industrial,  to  country  teachers. 

Both  Jeanes  and  Slater  Funds  do  a  little  in  the  way  of 
helping  to  build  schoolhouses.  In  several  counties  of 
Georgia,  South  Carolina,  and  Alabama  the  Jeanes  Fund  is 
assisting  to  build  one  good  negro  school  as  a  sample. 
The  Slater  Fund  contributes  to  the  same  kind  of  work  in  a 
limited  way,  and  also  to  equipment  of  town  and  city  schools 
for  vocational  work.  The  magnificent  new  building  for 
negro  children  above  the  fifth  grade,  built  by  the  City  of 
Charleston,  S.  C.,  was  furnished  with  superior  equipment 
for  all  kinds  of  hand  and  power  work  by  the  Slater  Fund. 


THE  NEED  AND  VALUE  OF  INDUSTRIAL 
EDUCATION  FOR  NEGROES 

MISS  GRACE  BIGLOW  HOUSE,  M.A.,  ASSOCIATE  PRINCIPAL  PENN 
SCHOOL,  ST.  HELENA  ISLAND,  S.  C. 

WE  are  living  in  a  stirring  age,  an  age  that  calls  us  all 
as  individuals  and  as  a  nation  to  rouse  ourselves  to  meet 
the  growing  demands  and  problems  of  our  rapidly  changing 
and  complicated  civilization.  All  through  the  activities  of 
our  modern  life,  in  art,  industry,  science,  politics,  education, 
and  religion,  we  feel  the  restless  change,  and  are  beginning 
to  -realize  that  old  traditions,  old  methods  of  education,  old 
habits  of  thought  and  action  are  inadequate  to  grapple  with 
the  new  problems. 

The  call  of  this  Southern  Sociological  Congress  is  a 
recognition  of  this  fact  and  a  ringing  challenge  to  the 
South  to  know  and  meet  the  needs  of  the  hour.  In  this 
"crusade  for  social  health  and  righteousness"  every  patriot 
should  enlist. 


90  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

In  his  book,  "The  Worker  and  the  State,"  Mr.  Arthur 
Dean  recalls  that  familiar  story  in  "Through  the  Looking 
Glass,"  where  Alice  and  the  Queen  are  running  hand  in 
hand,  while  the  Queen  continually  cries,  "Faster,  faster!" 
When  Alice  is  allowed  to  rest  under  a  tree  for  a  while  she 
looks  around  and  remarks:  "Why,  I  do  believe  we  have 
been  under  this  tree  the  whole  time.  Everything  is  just  as 
it  was!"  "Of  course  it  is,"  replies  the  Queen.  "What 
would  you  have  it?"  Still  panting  a  little,  Alice  replies: 
"Well,  in  our  country  you  generally  get  somewhere  else, 
if  you  run  very  fast  for  a  long  time  as  we  have  been  doing." 
"A  slow  sort  of  a  country,"  says  the  Queen.  "Now,  here, 
you  see,  it  takes  all  the  running  you  can  do  to  keep  in  the 
same  place.  If  you  want  to  get  somewhere  else,  you  must 
run  twice  as  fast." 

We,  too,  seem  to  be  living  in  the  Queen's  country,  for  if 
we  are  to  make  real  progress  we  begin  to  realize  that  we 
must  run  twice  as  fast.  This  is  especially  true  in  our  edu- 
cational system,  which  is  proving  unequal  to  the  great  task 
of  preparing  the  youth  of  our  country  for  efficient  and 
helpful  citizenship  in  our  modern  America. 

The  solution  of  the  immigration  problem,  the  race  prob- 
lem, the  economic  and  industrial  problems  depends  largely 
on  what  kind  of  citizens  our  schools  are  -turning  out. 

Hugo  Munsterberg  says:  "The  United  States  spends 
annually  five  hundred  million  dollars  more  on  fighting 
existing  crime  than  on  all  its  works  of  charity,  education, 
and  religion,"  and  "the  feeling  is  growing  that  a  fraction 
of  the  money  and  energy  expended  would  be  ample  to  pre- 
vent much  of  this  habitual  crime  from  coming  into  exist- 
ence at  all."  Gillette  urges  a  reorganization  of  our  educa- 
tional system  so  that  no  one  should  be  allowed  to  go  out  of 
school  until  he  has  been  trained  for  citizenship  and  given 
a  vocation.  He  accounts  for  the  fact  that  nine  out  of  every 
ten  children  in  the  United  States  are  leaving  school  before 
finishing  the  elementary  grades  as  due  to  the  lack  of  interest 
on  the  part  of  the  children,  and  to  the  feeling  of  both  par- 
ents and  children  that  the  school  is  doing  little  to  prepare 
them  for  their  work  in  life. 


NEED  AND  VALUE  OF  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION     91 

Shiftlessness,  crime,  and  pauperism  come  from  lack  of 
definite  training.  What  are  our  schools  doing  to  prevent 
these  evils?  What  is  our  race  problem  but  the  problem  of 
fitting  a  backward  people  to  lead  useful,  industrious,  and 
moral  lives  in  the  communities  where  they  live?  Are  our 
schools  giving  that  kind  of  a  training  that  leads  to  industry, 
skill,  and  strong  moral  character? 

In  his  interesting  book  on  vocational  education,  John 
W.  Gillette  gives  a  chart  showing  the  vocational  groups  in 
the  United  States  census  for  1900.  Of  the  30,000,000 
workers,  the  smallest  group,  about  one  and  a  half  million, 
are  in  professional  service,  and  it  is  largely  for  this  group 
that  our  public  school  system  is  planned.  The  elementary 
schools  are  preparatory  schools  for  the  high  schools  and 
they  in  turn  prepare  for  the  college  and  university,  while 
the  great  mass  of  workers  go  out  into  life  without  any 
definite  training  for  their  duties.  One-third  of  the  workers 
are  agriculturists,  and  how  much  practical  work  in  agri- 
culture are  our  rural  schools  giving?  There  are  25,000,000 
home-makers  and  home-keepers.  What  practical  prepara- 
tion for  this  work  do  our  girls  get  in  the  ordinary  public 
schools? 

It  was  through  industrial  training  that  Samuel  Chap- 
man Armstrong,  that  far-sighted  educator  and  pioneer  in 
industrial  education,  believed  the  negro  race  would  find 
its  place  in  our  civilization.  The  need  of  industrial  train- 
ing for  the  great  body  of  workers  of  both  races  is  recog- 
nized by  most  educators  of  to-day.  This  does  not  mean  that 
there  is  no  need  for  the  so-called  "higher  education"  for 
negroes  who  go  into  professional  life.  The  ten  million 
negroes  in  this  country  must  have  their  efficiently  trained 
doctors,  lawyers,  teachers,  and  business  men,  but  at  the 
foundation  of  all  education  for  the  race  there  should  be  the 
all-round  industrial  training.  In  our  elementary  schools 
we  must  add  thp  three  H's,  the  training  of  the  head,  hand, 
and  heart,  to  the  traditional  three  R's.  "Labor,"  says 
Armstrong,  "next  to  the  grace  of  God  in  the  heart,  is  the 
greatest  promoter  of  morality,  the  greatest  power  for  civi- 
lization." 


92  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

The  value  of  this  training  is  shown  in  the  efficient  service 
which  the  graduates  of  industrial  schools  have  given  to  the 
communities  in  which  they  live.  Dr.  Booker  Washington 
says:  "Not  a  single  graduate  of  the  Hampton  Institute 
nor  of  the  Tuskegee  Institute  can  be  found  to-day  in  any 
jail  or  State  penitentiary.  After  making  careful  inquiry, 
I  cannot  find  a  half  dozen  men  or  women  who  have  com- 
pleted a  full  course  of  education  in  any  of  our  reputable 
institutions,  like  Hampton,  Tuskegee,  Fisk,  or  Atlanta,  who 
are  in  prisons.  The  records  of  the  South  show  that  90  per 
cent  of  the  colored  people  in  prisons  are  without  knowledge 
of  trades,  and  61  per  cent  are  illiterate.  This  statement 
alone  disproves  the  assertion  that  the  negro  grows  in  crime 
as  education  increases.  If  the  negro  at  the  North  is  more 
criminal  than  his  brother  at  the  South,  it  is  because  of  the 
employment  which  the  South  gives  him  and  the  North  de- 
nies him.  It  is  not  the  educated  negro  who  has  been  guilty 
of  or  even  charged  with  crime  in  the  South ;  it  is,  as  a  rule, 
the  one  who  has  a  mere  smattering  of  education  or  is  in 
total  ignorance." 

The  success  of  such  schools  as  Hampton  in  developing 
character,  skill,  and  industry  has  been  so  great  that  edu- 
cators from  abroad  are  coming  over  to  study  the  work  of 
these  schools,  and  missionaries  are  carrying  Hampton  ideals 
and  methods  to  their  schools  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa. 

There  are  smaller  schools  which  are  giving  industrial 
training  for  negroes  all  through  the  South.  They  have  re- 
ceived their  impulse  from  Hampton  and  Tuskegee,  many  of 
them  being  taught  by  graduates  of  these  schools,  but  are 
adapting  the  industrial  work  to  the  needs  of  their  own 
communities. 

Perhaps  the  best  way  to  illustrate  the  results  of  this  kind 
of  training  is  to  take  one  of  these  schools  as  a  concrete 
example.  May  I  tell  briefly  how  Penn  School  is  attempting 
to  meet  the  needs  of  St.  Helena  Island?  This  is  one  of  the 
Sea  Islands  off  the  coast  of  South  Carolina,  with  a  popula- 
tion of  over  6,000  negroes  and  about  50  white  people. 

When  industrial  education  was  introduced  at  Penn 
School  about  eight  years  ago,  our  first  work  was  to  study 


NEED  AND  VALUE   OF   INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION  93 

conditions  on  the  Island.  We  found  a  farming  community. 
The  people  are  gentle,  orderly,  and  self-respecting.  Most 
of  them  own  farms  of  from  five  to  twenty-five  acres,  al- 
though some  of  the  farms  are  larger.  They  were  strug- 
gling, as  so  many  other  communities  in  the  South  are  strug- 
gling, under  the  "one-crop"  system,  with  all  its  accompany- 
ing evils.  The  whole  family,  from  the  baby  just  beginning 
to  toddle,  to  the  grandparents  crippled  by  old  age,  devoted 
all  their  time  and  energy  to  growing  the  long-staple  cotton, 
which  is  a  very  exacting  crop.  As  a  result,  instead  of 
growing  the  food  needed  for  the  family  and  live  stock,  that 
was  bought  at  the  store  of  the  cotton  merchants.  The  mer- 
chants fed  them  during  the  winter  and  took  in  their  cotton 
when  it  was  gathered.  Fortunately  for  St.  Helena,  the  head 
of  the  firm  was  a  just  and  generous  friend  to  the  negro  and 
tried  to  protect  the  farmers,  when  they  were  too  ignorant 
to  protect  themselves,  from  the  evils  of  the  credit  system. 
But  this  system  at  its  best  means  poverty,  poor  food,  poor 
homes,  poor  morals,  and  poor  health.  In  a  region  which 
was  fair  and  fertile  the  people  were  making  a  bare  living 
through  ignorance  of  scientific  farming  and  business 
methods.  Naturally  there  was  little  to  attract  the  young 
people  to  such  a  life  of  drudgery,  and  they  were  drifting 
to  the  cities. 

This  is  a  picture  not  only  of  St.  Helena,  but  of  many 
rural  communities  in  the  South,  although  in  many  respects 
the  negroes  of  St.  Helena  had  an  advantage  over  other  com- 
munities in  the  paternal  care  of  Mr.  Macdonald,  the  head 
of  the  firm,  and  in  the  Christian  influence  of  the  two  white 
ladies,  founders  of  Penn  School,  who  for  over  forty  years 
devoted  their  lives  to  the  service  of  the  people  of  the  Island. 
The  result  of  their  work  for  temperance  and  in  the  Sunday 
school  and  Churches,  as  well  as  the  public  schools,  is  notice- 
able when  comparing  conditions  at  St.  Helena  and  the  sur- 
rounding islands. 

But  conditions  were  changing  on  the  Island.  The  head 
of  the  firm  retired  from  business.  Other  firms  came  in 
and  competition  began.  The  ignorance  of  the  people  was 
their  great  danger!  The  work  for  Penn  School  to  do  was 


94  THE    HUMAN    WAY 

very  plain.  The  farmers  must  be  taught  better  farming 
methods  so  that  they  can  make  more  crops  and  build  better 
homes.  We  cannot  hope  for  pure  morals  and  happy  home 
life  when  a  large  family  of  eight  or  ten  people  are  living 
in  two  or  three  rooms.  We  cannot  expect  good  health  for 
a  people  poorly  fed  with  very  little  variety  in  their  daily 
ration  of  hominy  and  pork. 

When  Penn  School  was  reorganized  as  an  industrial  and 
agricultural  school,  a  farm  was  bought  and  all  its  work  was 
centered  in  that.  It  is  a  school  built  on  a  farm  and  it  aims 
to  fit  the  youth  of  the  Sea  Islands  to  live  happy,  useful  lives 
on  the  farm.  Training  in  carpentry,  cobbling,  painting, 
and  the  native  basketry  is  given  the  boys  in  addition  to  their 
work  in  agriculture,  and  this  year  wheelwright  and  black- 
smith shops  have  been  added  to  the  industries  for  the  boys. 
The  girls  are  taught  cooking,  sewing,  and  housekeeping, 
besides  the  garden  work. 

At  first  it  was  natural  that  the  parents  should  object: 
"But  we  send  our  children  to  learn  books,  not  to  work." 
They  were  all  familiar  with  the  drudgery  of  farming,  and 
for  their  children  they  wanted  something  better.  But  the 
children  kept  on  coming,  some  of  them  walking  ten  to  eight- 
een miles  a  day  to  attend  Penn  School.  For,  strange  to 
say,  in  spite  of  all  this  time  given  to  industrial  work,  the 
children  were  making  faster  progress  in  their  book  work. 
They  were  reading  and  writing  better,  thinking  and  talking 
more  clearly.  They  were  carrying  themselves  more  erectly 
and  gaining  in  self-control.  Their  pride  in  it  all  was  shown 
in  the  boastful  remark  of  the  little  boy :  "We  have  a-plenty 
of  industrials  in  our  school!" 

One  of  the  most  important  results  of  the  training  in 
this  industrial  school  is  the  growing  sense  of  responsibility 
among  the  pupils  for  the  care  and  protection  of  the  school 
buildings  and  property,  for  the  order  and  discipline  of  its 
members,  on  the  school  farm  and  on  the  road,  and  for  the 
honor  of  its  name.  This  spirit  of  helpfulness  and  responsi- 
bility was  largely  developed  through  the  organization  of  a 
Public  Service  Committee  of  six  boys  and  six  girls  who  are 
elected  annually  by  the  school  from  among  the  older  pupils. 


NEED  AND  VALUE  OF  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION     95 

These  boys  and  girls  cooperate  with  the  teachers  in  seeing 
that  the  school  rules  are  kept,  in  keeping  order  on  the  play- 
grounds at  recess,  and  in  organizing  the  play  for  the  young- 
er children.  (Strange  to  say,  our  children  had  to  be  taught 
to  play !)  They  take  charge  of  the  care  of  the  school  grounds 
and  supervise  the  committees  which  are  appointed  from 
each  class  in  turn  to  put  the  grounds  in  order  every  morn- 
ing. They  are  officers  of  the  boys'  and  girls'  companies. 
They  report  any  fighting  or  disorder  on  the  road,  if  they 
are  not  successful  in  stopping  it,  and  stand  ready  to  serve 
their  school  in  any  way  they  may  be  called  upon  by  their 
teachers.  The  approach  of  a  boy  or  girl  wearing  the  public 
service  button  is  often  sufficient  to  stop  a  quarrel  or  the 
beginning  of  a  fight.  Each  year  the  duties  of  this  commit- 
tee widen  with  the  growing  sense  of  responsibility  for  the 
welfare  and  honor  of  the  school  public.  This  year  they  are 
undertaking  a  work  of  service  to  the  whole  island.  A  great 
number  of  trees  on  this  beautiful,  wooded  island  have  been 
recklessly  destroyed  by  chipping,  or  cut  down  for  fuel. 
The  school,  under  the  leadership  of  the  committee,  has  or- 
ganized a  tree-planting  competition  in  which  the  eleven 
county  schools  as  well  as  Penn  School  are  invited  to  join. 
Any  one  entering  this  competition  must  plant  at  least  three 
trees — one  at  school,  one  on  the  roadside,  and  one  at  home. 
Prizes  are  to  be  awarded  at  the  end  of  the  year  to  the  indi- 
vidual and  to  the  school  which  plants  the  greatest  number 
of  trees  that  live. 

But  while  the  children  are  receiving  their  daily  training 
for  useful  citizenship,  the  school  is  reaching  out  into  the 
community  and  touching  the  homes  of  the  Island  through 
various  avenues.  The  teachers  of  Penn  School,  all  of  them 
trained  negro  missionaries,  many  of  them  graduates  of 
Hampton,  go  in  and  out  among  the  people,  visiting  the 
homes,  helping  in  the  Churches  and  Sunday  schools,  and 
teaching  the  children.  Even  more  compelling  than  their 
consciously  exerted  influence  is  the  quiet,  unconscious  power 
of  their  devoted  lives  of  service. 

A  trained  nurse — "Doctor  Nurse,"  the  people  call  her — 
goes  out  among  the  homes,  nurses  the  sick,  and  gives  help 


96  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

and  advice  to  the  mothers  in  the  care  of  their  children  and 
in  the  prevention  of  disease. 

Each  week  there  is  a  class  for  the  women  of  the  com- 
munity. They  begged  to  be  allowed  to  come  to  school  to 
learn  something  new.  At  these  meetings  questions  of  hy- 
giene and  home-keeping  are  taken  up  and  matters  that  affect 
the  welfare  of  the  school  and  community.  The  women  are 
also  taught  to  make  some  useful  articles  for  the  home, 
such  as  aprons,  cornshuck  mats,  and  quilts. 

There  are  parents'  meetings  at  the  school  for  the  teach- 
ers and  parents  to  get  together  to  better  understand  each 
other  and  the  needs  of  the  children.  On  these  Parents' 
Days  the  children  of  a  grade  prepare  a  programme  for  their 
parents,  and  in  the  older  classes  the  girls  prepare  and  serve 
the  lunch. 

There  is  the  monthly  temperance  meeting  in  which  all 
the  public  schools  take  part.  It  is  an  interesting  sight  to 
see  the  great  hall,  which  seats  nearly  a  thousand  people, 
filled  with  the  school  children  of  the  Island. 

An  active  teachers'  association  for  all  the  teachers  of 
the  Island  meets  once  a  month  on  the  school  farm.  There 
the  problems  of  the  rural  teacher  are  discussed  and  helpful 
suggestions  exchanged.  In  connection  with  this  organiza- 
tion a  teachers'  institute  is  held  during  the  year  which  other 
Beaufort  County  teachers  are  invited  to  attend. 

This  year  the  Churches  have  been  holding  Penn  School 
meetings,  at  which  the  teachers  are  invited  to  speak  about 
their  work  and  a  collection  is  taken,  which  is  given  to  the 
school. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  direct  influence  of  this  com- 
munity school  is  in  the  work  for  the  farmers.  An  annual 
Farmers'  Fair  and  Conference  is  held  on  the  school  farm, 
when  some  expert  is  invited  to  speak  to  the  people  on  sub- 
jects of  vital  interest  to  the  farmers  of  the  Sea  Island. 
This  year,  on  account  of  sickness  among  the  horses,  an 
expert  veterinary  was  invited  to  speak  at  the  conference 
and  talk  with  the  farmers.  The  United  States  Department 
of  Agriculture  has  sent  a  forester  and  farmer  for  these 
occasions,  and  twice  that  great  benefactor  of  the  South, 


NEED  AND  VALUE  OF  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION     97 

Dr.  Seaman  A.  Knapp,  came  to  St.  Helena  to  help  work  out 
plans  for  better  farming  and  home  life  for  the  people. 

The  school  farmer,  Mr.  J.  E.  Blanton,  was  appointed 
Demonstration  Agent  for  St.  Helena  and  some  of  the  sur- 
rounding islands.  Under  his  instruction,  farmers  who  were 
growing  from  7  to  14  bushels  of  corn  per  acre  have  in- 
creased their  yield  to  50  bushels  per  acre  and  in  some  cases 
have  gone  as  high  as  65  to  69  3-4  bushels  per  acre.  That 
is  a  big  leap,  and  means  radical  changes  in  the  farming 
situation,  for  even  the  most  conservative  islander  is  not 
going  to  see  his  neighbor  make  so  much  more  on  the  acre 
without  finding  out  the  secret  of  his  success.  Three  years 
ago  eight  doubtful  farmers  undertook  the  demonstration 
work  and  this  year  there  are  over  150  farmers  from  five 
islands  who  come  under  the  direct  influence  of  the  school. 

This  demonstration  work  and  its  success  have  naturally 
led  to  awaking  the  feeling  of  need  of  better  farming  tools, 
better  live  stock,  and  business  methods.  Last  year  the  St. 
Helena  Cooperative  Society  was  organized  with  a  member- 
ship of  seventy-five  and  a  committee  of  management  of 
eight.  The  rules  of  the  society  are  adapted  from  the  rules 
of  the  cooperative  societies  of  Ireland  started  by  Sir  Horace 
Plunkett.  Small  loans  are  made  at  a  low  rate  of  interest 
for  some  productive  purpose,  and  through  the  organization 
the  smaller  farmer  may  get  the  advantage  of  the  large 
farmer  in  buying  seed,  fertilizer,  and  farm  machinery.  All 
the  loans  for  last  year  have  been  repaid  with  the  interest, 
and  the  cooperative  society  is  starting  out  with  new  confi- 
dence in  the  use  of  the  organization,  and  in  the  value  of 
cooperation  which  is  one  of  the  great  lessons  for  the  negro 
race  to  learn. 

All  this  work  is  a  gradual  growth  in  response  to  the 
gradually  awakened  sense  of  need  for  better  things  in  a 
primitive  community  where  the  conservatism  of  the  Islander 
and  the  comparatively  unexacting  conditions  of  soil  and 
climate  make  it  easy  for  a  people  to  be  content  with  too 
little.  There  is  no  progress  where  there  are  no  wants. 
The  People's  School  is  the  kind  of  a  school  that  is  needed 
in  every  rural  community.  With  such  schools  at  the  foun- 


98  THE    HUMAN   WAY 

dation  of  the  development  of  the  negro  race  there  will  be  no 
race  problem  to  solve,  but  the  great  problem  of  every 
patriotic  citizen  to  keep  pace  in  our  educational  system  with 
the  rapidly  enlarging  demands  of  our  great  republic.  To 
use  a  phrase  of  President  Hibben's,  of  Princeton  University, 
it  is  this  "schooling  for  the  responsibility  of  freedom"  that 
will  win  true  freedom  for  the  negro  race. 


OPEN  CHURCH  WORK  FOR  THE  NEGRO 

REV.  JOHN  LITTLE,  LOUISVILLE,  KY. 

THE  work  of  the  Presbyterian  Colored  Missions  has  been 
an  effort  on  the  part  of  the  people  of  Louisville  to  give  to 
the  negroes  of  that  community  industrial  training  and  in- 
struction in  religious  truth.  Its  founders  had  no  theory  to 
put  into  practice,  but  rather  sought  to  minister  to  the  needs 
of  the  people  as  these  needs  appeared.  In  the  fifteen  years 
that  this  work  has  been  carried  on  it  has  grown  from  a  small 
Sunday  school  with  six  white  teachers  and  twenty-three  col- 
ored pupils  to  two  large  institutional  churches  with  one 
thousand  and  eighty-one  colored  people  attending  its  clubs, 
classes,  and  services  which  are  carried  on  under  the  direc- 
tion of  seventy  white  teachers  and  instructors  in  two  build- 
ings open  seven  days  in  the  week. 

The  first  step  was  to  organize  a  Sunday  school  where 
colored  children  would  come  for  instruction  by  white  teach- 
ers. Two  colored  girls  asked  for  a  sewing  class,  and  the 
teachers  at  once  saw  that  this  was  a  needed  supplement  to 
the  Sunday  school.  The  boys,  seeing  the  girls  with  extra 
classes,  made  application,  and  a  class  in  basketry  was  organ- 
ized for  them.  This  later  developed  into  a  carpenters'  shop. 
A  cooking  school  was  the  next  addition  to  the  scheduled 
work,  and  has  proved  the  most  popular  part  of  our  force  of 
instruction.  Later  boys'  and  girls'  clubs  were  organized, 
and  in  them  various  lines  of  work  have  been  undertaken 
for  their  moral  improvement.  During  the  summer  months 


OPEN   CHURCH    WORK   FOR   THE   NEGRO  99 

playgrounds  have  been  operated,  and  in  them  hundreds  of 
children  have  been  made  healthier  and  happier.  From  the 
first  the  teachers  visited  the  pupils  regularly  in  their  homes. 
The  study  of  these  homes  and  the  condition  of  the  people 
led  us  to  call  to  our  assistance  able  physicians  and  sur- 
geons, and  they  have  proved  to  be  some  of  our  most  valuable 
helpers. 

For  the  past  two  years  no  new  line  of  work  has  been 
undertaken,  but  there  has  been  a  steady  gradual  enlarge- 
ment of  each  of  the  departments  mentioned,  because  each 
year  a  larger  number  have  sought  admission  in  these  clubs 
and  classes. 

For  twelve  years  the  work  was  conducted  in  two  dilapi- 
dated storerooms  which  were  rented  for  the  purpose.  A 
few  years  ago  the  committee  in  charge  purchased  two  sub- 
stantial brick  buildings,  well  lighted  and  well  ventilated 
and  in  every  way  suitable  for  the  work.  These  buildings 
increased  the  confidence  of  the  colored  people  in  our  desire 
to  help  them,  and  since  the  purchase  of  this  property  the 
work  has  increased  in  the  numbers  reached  and  in  efficiency 
of  the  service  rendered. 

There  has  been  a  remarkable  increase  in  the  past  few 
years  in  the  number  of  our  pupils  who  have  received  treat- 
ment at  the  hands  of  our  best  physicians  and  surgeons. 
Literally  hundreds  who  have  been  suffering  with  diseases 
of  the  eyes  have  been  treated  and  practically  every  one 
cured.  Many  with  defective  vision  have  been  fitted  with 
glasses  and  in  most  instances  the  pupils  themselves  have 
paid  for  these  glasses.  In  two  instances  we  found  girls  in 
the  sewing  school  who  had  lost  one  eye  and  were  unconscious 
of  their  loss.  The  specialists  who  treated  them  told  us  that 
if  their  cases  had  been  longer  neglected  they  would  have 
resulted  in  total  blindness.  One  of  these  girls  to-day  stands 
at  the  head  of  our  sewing  school.  A  number  of  wonderful 
and  successful  surgical  operations  have  been  performed. 
The  result  of  these  operations  has  not  been  the  physical 
relief  alone,  but  has  also  given  us  new  spiritual  power.  Many 
who  have  been  treated  by  the  physicians  have  later  united 
with  the  Church,  and  in  one  or  two  instances  the  parents 


100  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

of  children  thus  treated  have  also  been  brought  into  the 
Church. 

The  most  remarkable  thing  in  connection  with  the  whole 
work  is  the  fact  that  white  people  of  this  community  have 
volunteered  as  teachers.  One  by  one,  men  and  women  from 
Presbyterian  and  other  evangelical  Churches  in  the  city 
have  volunteered  their  services.  Our  sewing  classes  and 
cooking  classes  are  taught  by  white  women  who  have  volun- 
teered to  give  one  afternoon  each  week.  Other  men  and 
women  volunteered  as  instructors  on  Sunday  afternoon  in 
the  Sunday  school.  Many  of  these  people  rarely  see  each 
other,  because  they  come  on  different  days,  but  their  hearts 
and  services  are  united  in  their  ministry  to  the  needy  people. 
A  nobler  group  than  the  seventy  consecrated  men  and  women 
who  are  cheerfully  donating  their  services  to  this  work  could 
not  be  found  in  the  whole  land. 

SPECIAL  POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

1.  It  is  a  local  work  done  according  to  the  ideas  of  the 
people  of  Louisville.     Many  institutions  for  negroes  have 
failed  to  attain  the  highest  standard  of  usefulness  because 
they  have  not  the  indorsement  of  the  community  in  which 
they  have  been  established,  but  are  maintained  according  to 
the  ideas  of  a  board  which  resides  in  some  distant  State. 
The  policy  of  this  work  is  determined  by  the  teachers,  who 
are  residents  in  Louisville,  and  it  is  conducted  in  such  a  way 
as  not  to  offend  the  white  people.    The  proof  that  it  is  reach- 
ing the  colored  people  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  has  grown  from 
a  Sunday  school  of  twenty-three  pupils  to  two  large  institu- 
tional churches  reaching  one  thousand  and  eighty-one  col- 
ored people. 

2.  It  is  supported  largely  by  money  contributed  in  Louis- 
ville.   The  most  perplexing  question  in  regard  to  the  whole 
work  is  its  financial  support.    At  no  period  in  its  history  has 
there  been  in  the  treasury  a  sum  sufficient  to  pay  one  month's 
expenses.     The  Presbyterian  Churches  in  Louisville  have 
from  time  to  time  taken  collections,  but  the  total  amount 
received  from  Churches  is  only  a  small  part  of  the  amount 
necessary  for  its  maintenance.     Most  of  the  money  comes 


OPEN   CHURCH   WORK   FOR  THE   NEGRO  101 

from  individuals,  and  the  larger  part  of  it  in  very  small 
sums.  Several  individuals  contribute  five  cents  a  month. 
Occasionally  a  gift  comes  from  another  State  and  brings 
with  it  an  inspiration  which  is  always  more  valuable  than 
the  gift  itself. 

3.  It  has  been  clearly  demonstrated  that  our  industrial 
work,  our  clubs,  and  playgrounds  have  a  strong  spiritual 
influence.  The  first  member  to  come  forward  to  apply  for 
baptism  and  admission  to  the  Church  came  from  a  class  in 
cooking.  In  this  cooking  class  I  saw  the  sterling  character 
of  this  girl  and  saw  an  opportunity  to  speak  to  her  of  her 
personal  salvation.  That  night  she  came  forward  to  unite 
with  the  Church.  Many  children  have  drifted  into  the  play- 
ground and  have  there  become  personally  acquainted  with 
our  teachers  and  have  been  led  into  the  Sunday  school,  into 
the  church  services,  and  later  to  the  foot  of  the  cross.  One 
summer  I  suggested  to  a  theological  student  that  he  direct 
our  playground.  He  objected,  saying  that  he  thought  he 
could  do  more  good  by  visiting  in  the  homes  of  the  com- 
munity and  reading  the  Bible  and  talking  to  them  person- 
ally. I  said  to  him  then:  "Leave  the  moral  responsibility 
with  me  and  take  the  playground  and  use  it."  At  the  close 
of  the  summer  he  was  frank  enough  to  admit  that  the  play- 
ground had  given  him  a  wonderful  influence  over  the  pupils 
in  the  Sunday  school,  and  also  when  he  preached  in  the 
church.  Most  of  the  boys  who  have  united  with  the  Church 
have  come  from  our  classes  in  carpentry  and  our  boys' 
clubs. 

What  has  been  done  in  Louisville  could  be  done  in  a 
number  of  other  communities  in  the  South,  and  I  am  anxious 
to  see  the  day  when  our  force  of  Christian  workers  will  be 
more  zealous  in  their  efforts  for  the  salvation  of  the  negro, 
who  needs  our  help,  our  sympathy,  and  our  instruction.  In 
Atlanta  a  similar  work  has  been  organized  by  the  Central 
Presbyterian  Church.  They  have  purchased  a  suitable  build- 
ing, are  conducting  a  Sunday  school  and  sewing  school, 
boys'  and  girls'  clubs,  and  last  summer  conducted  a  vacation 
Bible  school,  where  hundreds  of  colored  children  were  given 
religious  instruction  and  industrial  training.  In  Richmond, 


102  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

Va.,  a  student  of  a  theological  seminary  has  organized 
another  similar  work.  I  saw  a  picture  of  his  Sunday  school 
when  it  started  and  another  picture  six  months  later.  In 
the  meantime  he  had  visited  in  the  homes,  had  opened  a 
playground,  organized  boys'  and  girls'  clubs,  and  a  sewing 
school.  May  the  day  soon  come  when  we  shall  have  these 
institutions  established  in  hundreds  of  other  cities  in  the 
South! 


RACIAL  SELF-RESPECT  AND  RACIAL  ANTAGONISM 

C.  V.  ROMAN,  M.A.,  M.D.,  NASHVILLE,  TENN. 

WHAT  we  need  in  the  South  is  racial  self-respect  without 
racial  antagonism. 

Some  knowledge  of  the  messenger  often  illuminates  the 
message.  I  was  born  and  reared  among  white  people.  The 
playmates  and  associates  of  my  childhood  were  white.  My 
moral  and  religious  instructions  came  from  the  same  source. 
I  have  received  upon  a  sick  bed  the  kindly  ministrations  of 
sympathetic  white  companions.  I  have  sunk  into  the  death- 
like sleep  of  surgical  narcosis  amid  the  earnest  prayers  of 
Christian  white  women  mingled  with  those  of  my  mother. 
I  have  felt  the  blessed  benediction  from  the  soothing  words 
of  a  pious  minister  in  the  presence  of  death.  I  have  seen 
him  cheer  the  last  hours  of  the  dying  and  bind  up  the 
wounds  of  the  broken-hearted.  So,  I  know  that  some  white 
people  have  the  true  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  "was 
manifest  in  the  flesh,  justified  in  the  Spirit,  preached  unto 
the  Gentiles,  believed  on  in  the  world,  received  up  into 
glory." 

From  such  experiences  I  came  forth  nearly  thirty  years 
ago  to  dwell  among  my  own  people.  Among  the  farewells 
was  the  benediction  of  a  pious  old  Scotchman  who  had  been 
for  two  years  my  "philosopher,  guide,  and  friend,"  and  who 
presciently  assured  me  that  I  would  prosper  in  the  land  if 
I  would  but  trust  God  and  do  right.  "Remember,"  said  he 
as  the  train  pulled  out  of  the  station,  "  'He  that  walketh 
uprightly  walketh  surely.'  " 


RACIAL  SELF-RESPECT  AND  RACIAL  ANTAGONISM       103 

In  less  than  a  week  I  was  a  school-teacher  in  the  back- 
woods of  Kentucky.  Within  five  years  I  was  a  practicing 
physician.  I  have  mingled  with  my  people  in  Church  and 
society.  I  have  had  the  advantage  of  travel  and  observa- 
tion, and  I  know  something  of  mankind  in  general,  as  well 
as  my  own  people  in  particular — their  virtues  and  their 
vices,  their  joys  and  their  sorrows,  their  hopes  and  their 
fears.  I  love  my  people  and  prefer  to  live  among  them.  I 
am  not  ashamed  of  being  a  negro. 

But  this  is  not  all.  During  my  life  in  the  South  I  have 
known  white  men  in  all  the  walks  of  life,  and  I  firmly  be- 
lieve that  kindness  is  very  widely  distributed,  and  that  the 
love  of  justice  and  fair  play  is  more  prevalent  than  either 
class  prejudice  or  racial  antagonism.  Moreover,  profes- 
sional and  personal  friendships  have  brought  confidences 
that  have  revealed  skeletons  and  hearthurts  which  only  the 
most  intimate  ever  know  of  each  other.  I  have  therefore 
come  to  believe  that  no  human  heart  is  so  hard  as  to  feel 
no  pain,  and  none  so  strong  as  to  need  no  sympathy. 

Misunderstanding,  rather  than  meanness,  makes  men 
unjust  to  each  other.  Ignorance  and  prejudice  feed  upon 
each  other.  The  ignorant  are  always  prejudiced,  and  the 
prejudiced  are  always  ignorant. 

If  the  white  people  and  the  black  people  in  this  glorious 
Southland  of  ours  ever  understand  each  other,  racial  self- 
respect  will  safeguard  the  purlieus  of  racial  integrity,  and 
in  matters  of  common  welfare  cooperation  will  displace 
antagonism. 

In  the  sincere  hope  of  contributing  to  a  mutual  under- 
standing between  the  races  this  paper  was  written. 

PART  ONE — BASIC  GENERAL  TRUTHS 

1.  Man's  sole  right  to  preeminence  over  his  animal  kins- 
man is  his  intellectuality.  The  mind  makes  the  man.  "As 
a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he."  Not  his  looks,  nor 
his  stature,  but  his  thoughts  make  the  man.  It  is  not  the 
shape  of  his  head,  whether  it  be  dolichocephalic  or  brachy- 
cephalic;  it  is  not  the  texture  of  the  hair,  whether  it  be 
ulotrichous  or  leiotrichous :  it  is  not  the  facial  contour, 


104  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

whether  it  be  angular  and  sharp  and  European,  or  broad 
and  flat  and  African ;  it  is  not  the  color  of  the  skin,  whether 
it  have  the  achromatic  pallor  of  the  Norwegian  or  the  mid- 
night hue  of  the  sun-kissed  Senegambian — no,  neither  facial 
angles,  nor  brain  weight,  nor  set  of  teeth,  nor  length  of 
arms,  nor  arch  of  foot,  nor  any  other  outward  physical 
characteristic  is  the  determining  factor  in  life's  compli- 
cated equation.  As  a  man  thinks,  not  as  a  man  looks, 
finally  fixes  his  status.  Thoughts,  not  bites,  win  the  battles 
of  life.  This  is  as  true  phyletically  as  individually.  Racial 
distinctions  are  psychical  rather  than  physical.  Slav,  Saxon, 
and  Latin  are  far  more  dissimilar  in  mental  habit  than  in 
physical  contour.  Mental  habit  rather  than  physical  form 
differentiated  Greece  and  Rome.  Many  attempts  have 
been  made  to  classify  mankind,  but  the  intellectual  division 
into  sensorimotor  and  ideomotor  is  the  most  far-reaching. 

2.  Humanity  is  greater  than  race.    It  is  said  that  Na- 
poleon lost  the  battle  of  Waterloo  because  he  misunderstood 
the  topography  of  the  region  over  which  his  cavalry  had  to 
pass  in  their  charge  against  the  allied  armies  under  Wel- 
lington.    Ignoring  a  sunken  road  precipitated  a  series  of 
reverses  that  ended  ignominiously  the  martial  career  of  the 
first  Napoleon  and  eclipsed  forever  his  star  of  conquest. 

The  careers  of  nations  are  typified  in  the  careers  of  indi- 
viduals. The  Saxon  is  the  conquering  war  lord  among 
nations,  and  seems  destined  to  rule  the  world.  There  is, 
however,  in  his  path  a  chasm  whose  depths  and  dangers  he 
seems  unable  to  appreciate.  It  is  color-prejudice — the  ef- 
fort to  substitute  race  for  merit  in  measuring  men. 

Modern  civilization  will  go  the  way  of  Sodom  and  Go- 
morrah unless  justice  and  fraternity  can  gain  a  firmer  hold 
on  the  hearts  and  brains  of  men.  No  civilization  can  be- 
come world-wide  and  enduring  if  a  white  skin  is  the  indis- 
pensable passport  to  justice  and  distinction.  This  would 
exclude  from  the  fruits  of  civilization  the  majority  of  man- 
kind. 

3.  The  highest  wisdom  is  to  know  the  truth;  the  highest 
virtue  is  to  do  the  right.    One  should  have  either  the  brains 
to  lead  or  the  faith  to  follow.     To  be  willing  to  live  the 
truth  is  a  greater  virtue  than  to  be  willing  to  die  for  one's 


RACIAL  SELF-RESPECT  AND  RACIAL  ANTAGONISM       105 

opinions.  Martyrdom  is  at  best  only  a  test  of  fidelity  to 
opinion  and  not  an  argument  for  truth.  In  the  last  analysis 
it  may  be  sheer  stubbornness.  Man's  attitude  toward  new 
or  unpleasant  truth  is  the  greatest  tragedy  of  human  life. 
He  not  only  does  not  know  the  truth  and  does  not  want  to 
know  it,  but  will  resent  to  the  bitter  end  anybody  else's 
knowing  it  or  talking  about  it.  "This  is  the  condemnation, 
that  light  is  come  into  the  world,  and  men  loved  darkness 
rather  than  light." 

4.  Justice  and  liberty  are  for  all  or  for  none.    Injustice 
cannot  linger  in  a  land  that  is  really  bright  with  freedom's 
holy  light.    No  tyrant  was  ever  free.    No  man  is  secure  in 
his  rights  so  long  as  any  man  is  deprived  of  his  rights.    It 
is  easier  to  be  generous  than  it  is  to  be  just.    Man's  hope 
of  justice  has  ever  been  an  idle  dream  and  his  quest  for 
liberty  a  fool's  errand,  because  he  is  not  willing  to  be  just 
nor  to  meet  the  conditions  of  freedom. 

5.  Selfishness   (mutual  benefits)  is  the  only  sane  basis 
from  which  to  predicate  successful  cooperation.     No  man 
is  ever  going  to  think  more  of  you  than  he  does  of  himself. 
The  highest  ethical  ideal  ever  lived  or  preached  enjoined 
that  you  love  your  neighbor  as  yourself.    Sane  altruism  is 
the  highest  and  truest  egoism. 

6.  Conduct  must  be  consistent  or  character  will  not  be 
sound.     An  individual  or  people  cannot  long  remain  both 
Jekyll  and  Hyde,  for  one  character  or  the  other  will  even- 
tually triumph.    No  one  can  successfully  change  his  charac- 
ter with  his  company.    A  race  cannot  be  persistently  unjust 
and  dishonest  to  another  race  and  be  permanently  either 
honest  or  just  to  itself.    Kindness  never  degraded  any  one, 
nor  did  rudeness  ever  vindicate  anybody's  claims  to  supe- 
riority.   A  virtuous  man  is  an  esset  to  his  community,  and 
a  vicious  man  is  a  deficit,  regardless  of  racial  identity. 

PART  TWO — PRESENT   CONDITIONS 

With  these  basic  general  truths  in  mind,  let  us  note  some 
specific  facts  of  racial  contact  in  the  South  to-day. 

1.  There  has  arisen  in  the  South  a  type  of  politician  that 
proposes  to  make  the  white  people  happy  by  making  the 


106  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

negroes  unhappy.  They  propose  to  better  the  poor  white 
man's  condition  relatively  and  negatively  by  making  worse 
the  negroes'  condition.  They  would  burke  the  welfare  of 
their  country  for  power  and  pelf.  Instead  of  striving  to 
move  forward  themselves,  they  are  striving  to  force  the 
negro  back.  It  is  a  strange  and  weird  delusion  that  seems 
to  have  completely  obsessed  the  majority  in  some  Southern 
States  and  opened  the  door  to  political  preferment.  They 
hope  by  some  political  alchemy  to  put  more  rights  in  the 
Constitution  for  themselves  by  taking  out  any  rights  the 
negro  may  have,  or  think  he  has  therein. 

2.  The  races  know  and  believe  in  the  vices  of  each,  but 
do  not  know  or  believe  in  the  virtues  of  each  other.    The 
average  white  Christian  believes  that  the  negro  neither  un- 
derstands nor  practices  the  true  principles  of  Christianity, 
and  the  negro  knows  that  the  white  man  so  believes.    But 
the  negro  believes  identically  the  same  thing  of  the  white 
man,  and  this  the  white  man  does  not  know.    Yet  neither 
doubts  the  other's  vices.    Further,  the  average  negro  feels 
it  is  impolite  to  be  manly  and  dangerous  to  be  frank  with 
white  people.     May  it  not  be  possible  that  each  race  has 
given  the  other  more  evidence  of  its  vices  than  it  has  of  its 
virtues?    Each  has  demonstrated  to  the  full  satisfaction  of 
the  other  its  guilt  of  falsehood,  theft,  and  immorality;  but 
each  has  failed  to  impress  upon  the  other  its  truth,  honesty, 
and  virtue. 

If  the  white  man  has  more  intelligence,  the  negro  has 
more  secretiveness.  Each  fails  to  understand  the  other. 
Playing  master  developed  arrogance,  while  playing  slave 
developed  cunning.  Neither  is  a  desirable  quality  in  a 
friend. 

3.  A  belief  that  the  negro  is  unable  to  defend  himself 
often  makes  white  people  tyrannical.     A  belief  that  the 
courts  are  unfair  frequently  makes  the  negro  desperate.    By 
magnifying  petty  offenses,  petty  criminals  are  made  grave 
and  incorrigible  offenders.     Thus  the  seeds  of  race  antag- 
onism and  anarchy  are  sown.    The  records  of  the  inferior 
courts  of  our  country  will  prove  painful  reading  to  those 
who  love  justice  and  fair  play.    Fred  Douglass  said  that  as 
a  boy  he  discovered  that  the  slaves  oftenest  whipped  were 


RACIAL  SELF-RESPECT   AND  RACIAL  ANTAGONISM       107 

not  the  ones  most  deserving  punishment,  but  those  most 
easily  whipped.  This  is  largely  true  of  our  administration 
of  justice.  This  fact,  rather  than  race  prejudice  or  negro 
criminality,  explains  the  frequency  with  which  negro  crap 
games  are  raided  and  negro  vagrants  incarcerated. 

4.  Racial  contact  is  now,  at  the  most  disadvantageous 
and  dangerous  points — 

(1)  The  vicious  and  criminal  of  both  races  in  the 
saloons,  brothels,  and  gambling  dens.  (2)  The  ignorance 
and  poverty  of  the  negro  with  the  wealth  of  the  whites. 
The  servant  race  gets  an  exaggerated  idea  of  the  wealth 
and  influence  of  the  master  race;  and  the  master  race  gets 
an  exaggerated  idea  of  the  vice  and  ignorance  of  the  servant 
race.  Both  confuse  race  and  class.  The  negro  is  the  greater 
loser;  for  a  lack  of  racial  ideals  is  his  greatest  misfortune. 
Imitation  may  be  sincere  flattery,  but  it  is  also  an  irritating 
annoyance  that  will  bring  down  upon  the  hapless  head  of 
the  imitator  the  contempt  of  the  imitated.  The  attitude  of 
the  white  man  himself  is  responsible  for  the  negro's  lack  of 
race  pride. 

5.  Any  accusation  of  crime  is  made  with  big  headlines 
in  the  newspapers.     Corrections  or  retractions  are  never 
thus  made.    The  immense  power  of  language  is  thus  used 
to  promote  strife.    Mobs  originate  in  epithets  as  often  as  in 
crime.    The  intellectual  forces  of  associated  ideas  are  used 
to  generate  race  antagonism.    This  works  one  of  the  great- 
est hardships  the  negro  has  to  bear,  and  is  the  most  potent 
force  for  evil  in  the  race  situation. 

6.  The  doctrinaire  ebullitions  of  the  student  often  be- 
come slogans  of  war  among  the  ignorant.    Newspaper  and 
platform  arguments  about  "white  supremacy"  often  take 
the  form  of  cruelty  and  oppression  when  interpreted  by  a 
street  car  conductor,  a  ward  policeman,  or  a  workhouse 
guard.    The  extent  of  this  oppression,  I  am  sure,  is  entirely 
unknown  to  the  majority  of  white  citizens.     It  is  an  inter- 
esting, if  pathetic,  study  to  see  an  artificial  self-conscious- 
ness of  racial  superiority  strangle  the  natural  impulses  of 
civilization.     The  other  day  I  saw  a  good-looking,  modest- 
appearing,  well-dressed,  but  frail  negro  woman  with  a  child 
in  her  arms  attempt  to  board  a  street  car.     She  was  about 


108  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

to  fail.  The  conductor  started  to  help  her,  then  looked  at 
the  other  passengers  and  desisted.  His  face  was  a  study. 
Prejudice  won;  but  it  was  a  Pyrrhic  victory.  To  prove  a 
doctrine  he  damned  a  man.  There  is  something  wrong  with 
a  code  of  ethics  that  makes  its  votaries  feel  it  a  humiliation 
to  be  kind  to  any  sentient  creature,  much  less  a  human 
being,  however  humble.  Chromatopsia  may  yet  wreck  the 
twentieth-century  civilization. 

The  persistent  effort  to  treat  all  negroes  alike  re- 
tards the  healthful  growth  of  class  distinction  among  us  and 
lessens  the  influence  of  the  intelligent  and  virtuous  over 
the  ignorant  and  vicious. 

7.  Business  intercourse  'is  hampered  and  friction  need- 
lessly engendered  by  a  racial  chauvinism  that  leads  many 
white  people  to  disregard  the  ordinary  amenities  of  civiliza- 
tion in  their  dealings  with  negroes.  This  is  not  in  accord- 
ance with  the  ideals  of  ethics,  nor  the  traditions  and  con- 
duct of  the  great  men  of  the  South.  The  sun  is  not  injured 
by  shining  upon  the  lowly,  neither  is  politeness  degraded 
when  extended  to  the  humble.  No  man  was  ever  lowered 
by  kindness.  Washington,  Jefferson,  and  Hayne  might  be 
summoned  to  testify. 

White  clerks  object  to  negro  customers  and  white  pro- 
prietors object  to  negro  stores. 

Interstate  travel  is  a  veritable  nightmare — nothing  to 
eat,  nowhere  to  sleep,  imperfect  toilet  accommodations,  and 
a  change  of  cars  every  few  hours. 

PART  THREE — THE  REMEDY 

1.  Let  us  accept  it  as  a  fact  (res  adjudicata)  tfiat  the 
negro  and  the  white  man  must  survive  or  perish  together  in 
the  South.    "God,  who  is  the  great  Choragus  and  Master  of 
the  scenes  of  life  and  death,"  has  placed  us  on  the  stage 
together.     Let  us  play  our  parts  like  men,  neither  crying 
like  children  nor  fighting  like  dogs. 

2.  Let  us  encourage  interracial  cooperation  on  matters 
appertaining  to  the  common  good.    May  not  the  intelligent 
and  conservative  members  of  both  races  form  a  kind  of 
clearing  house  for  the  debits  and  credits  of  racial  contact? 
A  knowledge  of  a  friend's  virtues  may  give  us  patience  with 


RACIAL  SELF-RESPECT  AND   RACIAL   ANTAGONISM       109 

his  vices.     Mutual  respect  is  a  prerequisite  to  mutual  fair 
play.    The  problem  can  be  solved  better  in  detail. 

3.  Let  us  find  the  facts.     This  is  no  easy  task.     The 
races  know  so  much  about  each  other  that  is  not  so.    The 
average  individual  "reasons  but  to  err."    Bacon  describes 
four  kinds  of  errors  or  false  notions  that  seduce  men's 
minds  from  the  truth.    Race  adjustment  in  the  South  is  hin- 
dered by  all  four  forms ;  but  what  he  calls  idols  of  the  mar- 
ket place  and  idols  of  the  theater  are  the  most  troublesome. 
The  first  are  the  loose  inaccuracies  of  ordinary  gossip — 
erroneous  opinions  that  men  communicate  to  each  other  in 
social  and  business  intercourse.    The  second  are  the  system- 
atically taught  tenets  of  false  philosophies  and  unsound 
political  creeds. 

4.  //  /  could  get  the  ear  of  the  genius  of  the  American 
press,  I  would  ask  the  following  boon  for  America  and  the 
negro: 

(1)  Drop  from  the  vocabulary  all  such  words  as  nigger, 
darky,  Sambo,  coon,  etc. 

(2)  Never  mention  the  race  of  a  criminal  in  connection 
with  criminal  news. 

(3)  Never  report  the  speeches  or  sayings  of  race  agita- 
tors, especially  those  seeking  political  preferment  or  per- 
sonal prominence. 

(4)  Publish  with  full  racial  credit  items  creditable  to 
the  negro. 

Five  years  of  such  conduct  would  see  the  end  of  the 
negro  problem  in  America. 

5.  The  American  negro  needs  sane,  conservative,  unself- 
ish, patient,  negro  leadership.    The  greatest  help  that  can 
be  given  the  race  is  to  assist  in  the  development  of  these 
leaders.    Wholesome  negro  ideals  must  be  created  by  men 
of  negro  blood.    These  ideals  may  be  assisted  from  without, 
but  cannot  be  superimposed.     Masters  may  be  aliens,  but 
leaders  must  be  patriots.     Leaders  must  know  the  people 
they  lead.    A  race  without  leaders  of  its  own  blood  is  lost. 
No  masterpiece  was  ever  written  in  any  language  but  the 
mother  tongue  of  the  writer;  and  great  leaders  are  always 
kindred  of  the  led.     Moses  was  a  Jew,  Cromwell  was  an 


110  THE    HUMAN   WAY 

Englishman,  Lincoln  was  an  American,    and    Booker    T. 
Washington  is  a  negro. 

In  "The  Lady  of  the  Lake"  Scott  describes  a  character, 
Brian,  the  priest,  whose  unnamed  father  met  his  mother  at 
midnight  upon  an  ancient  battlefield,  and  whose  mother 

"Locked  her  secret  in  her  breast, 
And  died  in  travail,  unconfessed." 

Popular  superstition  gave  the  unlucky  orphan  a  ghost  for  a 
sire.    His  unhappy  fate  is  thus  described : 

"Alone  among  his  young  compeers, 
Was  Brian  from  his  infant  years; 
A  moody  and  heart-broken  boy, 
Estranged  from  sympathy  and  joy, 
Bearing  each  taunt  with  careless  tongue 
On  his  mysterious  lineage  flung. 
Whole  nights  he  spent  by  moonlight  pale, 
To  wood  and  stream  his  hap  to  wail, 
Till,  frantic,  he  as  truth  received 
What  of  his  birth  the  crowd  believed, 
And  sought,  in  mist  and  meteor  fire, 
To  meet  and  know  his  Phantom  Sire! 

In  vain,  to  soothe  his  wayward  fate, 
The  cloister  oped  her  pitying  gate; 
In  vain,  the  learning  of  the  age 
Unclasped  the  sable-lettered  page: 
Even  in  its  treasures  he  could  find 
Food  for  the  fever  of  his  mind. 

Eager  he  read  whatever  tells 

Of  magic,  cabala,  and  spells, 

And  every  dark  pursuit  allied 

To  curious  and  presumptuous  pride; 

Till  with  fired  brain  and  nerves  o'erstrung, 

And  heart  with  mystic  horrors  wrung, 

Desperate  he  sought  Benharrow's  den, 

And  hid  him  from  the  haunts  of  men." 

He  became  a  superstitious  fanatic  because  of  the  pressure 
of  outside  opinion. 

This  is  the  negro's  position  exactly.  He  has  accepted,  to 
his  own  detriment,  the  white  man's  estimate  of  him.  Whole- 
some public  opinion  must  arise  from  within,  not  be  super- 
imposed from  without.  Enthusiastic  abolitionists  overesti- 


RACIAL  SELF-RESPECT   AND  RACIAL   ANTAGONISM       111 

mated  his  immediate  capabilities  as  a  citizen,  and  the  antag- 
onistic standpatter  underestimated  his  rights  as  a  man. 
Neither  was  willing  to  let  him  evolve  naturally.  As  a  con- 
sequence he  has  frequently  disappointed  friends  by  ineffi- 
ciency and  irritated  enemies  by  imitation.  What  is  the 
remedy?  Let  all  the  friends  of  humanity,  white  and  black, 
bend  every  ene^y  to  increase  the  negro's  self-respect  and 
patience.  This  will  do  more  to  stop  the  copying  of  your 
secret  orders  than  all  the  injunctions  and  statutes  you  can 
invent.  Encourage  negroes  in  the  professions  and  business. 
It  will  help  everybody.  Public  opinion  is  all-powerful  in 
this  country — white  people  make  that  opinion.  Let  that 
opinion  back  the  constructive,  conservative  workers  among 
the  negroes,  instead  of  exploiting  "white  hopes."  Encour- 
age the  liberal  and  sane  action  of  Nashville,  Tenn.,  in  em- 
ploying negro  district  nurses;  of  Clarksville,  Tenn.,  and 
Fort  Worth,  Tex.,  in  having  negro  assistant  health  officers 
to  work  among  their  own  people  and  cooperate  with  the 
whites  for  the  general  good.  See  that  separate  laws  are 
fairly  enforced  and  equal  accommodations  given. 

FINALLY 

The  effectiveness  of  opposition  to  one's  progress  is  in 
inverse  ratio  to  one's  speed.  A  stone  thrown  at  less  than  a 
mile  a  minute  shatters  a  windowpane  against  which  it 
strikes ;  a  pistol  bullet  at  forty  or  fifty  miles  a  minute  goes 
through  with  little  disturbance  while  light  at  a  rate  of 
twelve  million  miles  a  minute  passes  through  with  no  per- 
ceptible disturbance  whatever.  A  candle  hurled  with  suf- 
ficient speed  will  pass  uninjured  through  an  oak  plank. 

Apparently  insurmountable  opposition  often  indicates 
that  we  have  too  little  momentum;  that  we  are,  in  fact,  mov- 
ing too  slowly.  That  is  what  is  the  matter  with  the  country 
to-day.  It  has  slackened  its  pace  toward  that  ideal  govern- 
ment which  "derives  its  just  powers  from  the  consent  of 
the  governed,"  "a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people, 
and  for  the  people,"  under  which  any  individual  whatso- 
ever may  have  "life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness" 
unhindered  and  unhindering. 


112  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

"The  lusts  of  other  things  entering  in  have  choked  the 
word ;"  for  the  love  of  money  we  have  "denied  the  faith  and 
pierced  ourselves  through  with  many  sorrows,"  and 

"Man's  inhumanity  to  man" 

has  again  postponed  the  day 

"When  truth  and  worth  o'er  all  the  earth 
Shall  bear  the  gree,  and  a'  that." 

"The  real  solution  of  the  trust  question,  the  race  ques- 
tion, and  all  the  great  problems  of  our  government  to-day  is 
a  rededication  of  the  thought  of  the  country  to  the  ideals 
of  justice  and  fair  play." 

"If  we  set  our  eyes  on  justice  for  all  men,  the  momentum 
of  righteousness  will  overcome  all  obstacles,  even  the  race 
question." 


THE  TEST  OF  CIVILIZATION 

MRS.  J.  D.  HAMMOND,  AUGUSTA,  GA. 

THE  big  things  of  life  are  always  simple.  It  is  we  little 
people  of  a  day  who,  in  all  ages,  have  distorted  the  big 
things,  and  made  them  complex,  by  wresting  them  piecemeal 
from  their  normal  relations  and  judging  them  from  the 
standpoint  of  our  small  personal  circumstances. 

The  way  out,  in  any  tangle,  is  the  big,  simple  way  that 
fits  all  human  life.  Nothing  is  really  peculiar,  not  even  our 
selfishness  and  provincialism.  Human  life  is  one.  We  can 
match  our  greatness  and  our  weakness,  our  knowledge,  our 
ignorance,  our  heroisms  and  our  meannesses,  wherever  men 
and  women  live,  wherever  strength  preys  upon  weakness, 
wherever  love  rises  into  sacrifice  or  sinks  into  selfish  indul- 
gence. 

What  is  our  duty  to  the  negro?  What  tons  of  air  have 
been  breathed  in  answering  that  question,  what  volumes 
written,  what  complex  difficulties  unearthed!  And  all  the 
time  the  plain,  straight,  simple  answer  stares  us  in  the  face, 


THE  TEST  OF  CIVILIZATION  113 

the  answer  that  meets  all  the  peculiar  conditions  that  ever 
were  or  ever  will  be,  the  whole  wide  world  around :  "Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 

The  old  question  springs  to  our  lips  at  once:  "Who  is 
my  neighbor  ?"  And  straight  and  simple  the  answer  comes : 
"The  man  who  has  no  chance,  the  down  and  out,  the  man 
who  needs.  Thou  shalt  love  him  as  thyself." 

This  measure  of  love  is  not,  as  we  often  imagine,  sac. 
rifice;  it  is  justice.  Sacrifice  is  loving  our  neighbor  as 
Christ  loved  us — pouring  out  gifts,  and  opportunity,  and 
life  itself,  in  his  service,  stripping  ourselves  that  we  may 
meet  his  needs.  Loving  one's  neighbor,  not  more  than  one's 
self,  but  as  one's  self,  belongs  to  a  lower  world  than  that — 
the  eye-for-an-eye,  tooth-for-a-tooth  world,  the  world  of 
justice  and  fair  play.  It  means  that  we  who  are  strong 
shall  not  trample  the  weak  nor  take  advantage  of  their  help- 
lessness, but  shall  open  to  them  the  door  of  opportunity  and 
see  that  they  have  a  chance  to  enter  it — as  fair  a  chance, 
according  to  their  ability,  as  we. 

Justice  and  opportunity — those  are  the  fundamental 
human  needs,  the  necessary  basis  of  human  progress,  the 
test  of  the  measure  of  a  nation's  civilization.  The  lack  of 
them  is  the  taproot  of  all  social  and  industrial  problems  the 
world  around.  What  we  call  the  negro  problem  is  the 
South's  fragment  of  this  world-tangle,  which  we  have  hither- 
to viewed  as  a  thing  apart,  instead  of  as  our  share  of  the 
task  of  the  human  race.  Our  problem  is  not  racial,  but 
human  and  economic.  The  coincidence  to  so  great  extent  in 
the  South  of  the  poverty  line  and  the  color  line  has  confused 
our  thoughts;  we  hold  the  negro  racially  responsible  for 
conditions  common  to  all  races  on  his  economic  plane. 

Races,  indeed,  are  separate  and  distinct,  nor  would  we 
of  the  South  have  them  otherwise.  They  stand  apart  like 
mountains,  cleft  to  their  very  base;  yet  are  all  the  moun- 
tains one  with  the  earth.  Differences  go  deep,  and  abide; 
but  likenesses  go  deeper  yet.  The  earth  explains  the  moun- 
tains, and  races  of  men  are  to  be  explained  only  in  terms  of 
humanity. 

In  every  race,  when  the  worker's  income  falls  below  the 
nation's  standard  of  healthful  living,  certain  world-wide 

8 


114  THE    HUMAN   WAY 

uglinesses  appear  in  the  worker's  life.  The  longer  a  family, 
or  a  class,  lives  below  this  poverty  line,  this  line  of  want, 
the  more  these  tendencies  develop.  Insufficient  food  and 
clothing,  insanitary  shelter,  and  lack  of  clean  recreation 
lower  the  vitality  of  body  and  mind,  cause  what  we  term 
laziness,  and  foster  a  craving  for  stimulants  and  vicious 
excitement.  To  this  personal  depreciation  poverty  adds 
housing  conditions  which  force  an  environment  almost,  or 
quite,  prohibitive  of  decency  or  morality.  Thriftlessness, 
vice,  weakened  wills,  unreliability  in  every  relation  of  life — 
to  all  these  this  economic  class,  the  world  over,  is  fore- 
doomed at  birth.  We  cannot  shift  the  responsibility  for  it 
from  the  privileged  class  by  saying  that  such  people  will 
not  work.  It  takes  both  justice  and  opportunity  to  lift 
them  to  where  they  can  hold  their  wills  at  the  working  point, 
beyond  the  satisfying  of  their  purely  animal  needs. 

These  needs  are  insistent;  and  to  satisfy  them  they  fol- 
low the  line  of  least  resistance,  whether  it  lead  to  work  or 
to  crime.  This  economic  class,  the  world  over,  furnishes 
the  great  bulk  of  the  world's  supply  of  criminals.  It  fur- 
nishes it  here  in  the  South.  And  because  this  class  is,  with 
us,  so  largely  composed  of  negroes,  we  charge  their  race 
with  those  tendencies  which  the  conditions  we  furnish  them 
supply.  Yet  what  is  true  here  of  negroes  is  true  elsewhere, 
under  like  conditions,  of  men  of  every  race  and  of  every 
color. 

Little  children  are  the  raw  material  of  human  life.  You 
can  weave  them  into  a  great  variety  of  patterns,  into  goods 
of  all  grades,  though  you  cannot  make  wool  cotton  nor  cot- 
ton wool.  In  Italy  they  are  trying  an  experiment  with  some 
children  of  Rome's  criminal  class — this  same  class  which 
lives  below  the  line  of  want.  They  have  renovated  sctne 
insanitary  houses  over  there,  letting  in  abundant  light  and 
air.  Only  a  fair  business  return  on  the  investment  was 
desired,  so  the  rents  are  within  the  reach  of  this  poorest 
and  lowest  class.  Then  some  one  who  cared  about  helping 
them  was  set  to  do  it,  making  friends  with  them,  showing 
them  how  to  live,  and  why.  The  tenants'  health  and  morals 
have  improved,  they  are  better  able  to  work,  more  ambitious 
to  do  so — a  little  hope  is  a  wonderful  heartener  to  ambition 


THE  TEST   OF   CIVILIZATION  115 

— and  generally  they  have  improved.  This  plan  has  been 
tried  everywhere,  except  among  our  poorest  in  the  South; 
and  it  works  out  like  a  sum  in  simple  addition.  Two  and 
two  will  always  make  four,  whether  they  are  added  on  white 
paper  or  on  a  black  slate.  The  peculiar  thing  about  this 
Italian  experiment  is  its  method  with  the  children — Rome's 
foredoomed  criminals-to-be. 

They  are  taken  very  young,  before  the  streets  poison 
them — at  two  and  a  half  or  three  years  of  age.  A  woman 
of  a  higher  class,  educated,  a  woman  who  cares,  has  over- 
sight of  them  all  day  long.  They  play  and  they  work,  in- 
doors and  out,  with  plenty  of  fresh  air  and  sunshine.  They 
have  what  children  need — red  children,  yellow  children, 
children  white  and  black:  opportunity  for  normal  develop- 
ment. And  they  have  developed  in  a  way  that  has  arrested 
the  attention  of  the  world,  these  Montessori  children,  these 
children  of  Rome's  poorest  and  criminal  class. 

I  do  not  say  that  negro  children  would  respond  as  well, 
or  that  Anglo-Saxon  children  would.  The  Romans  were  a 
cultured  people,  leaders  of  the  world's  thought,  when  our 
Teutonic  forefathers  wore  skins  and  fought  like  beasts  for 
their  prey.  And  the  negroes  were  savages  much  later  still. 
The  Roman  slum  children  have  a  longer  inheritance  than 
ours.  But  humanity  is  humanity,  and  the  thing  is  worth 
trying  on  white  Americans  and  black  ones,  too.  Justice 
and  opportunity  are  really  the  two  sides  of  the  one  shield : 
justice  necessitates  opportunity. 

What  happens  to  our  little  negroes?  The  parents  of 
some  of  them  have  had  opportunity.  Some  of  them  have 
wise  care  and  a  fair  chance.  Not  very  many  of  them,  as 
compared  with  the  whole  race;  but  more  than  enough  to 
refute  the  doctrine  that  the  negroes  are  incapable  of  fine 
things. 

Many  negro  parents  were  denied  in  their  childhood  those 
opportunities  for  normal  growth  which  are  childhood's 
right  the  world  over;  they  can  pass  on  little  but  their  own 
ignorance  and  inefficiency.  Their  children  grow  up  in  the 
street,  a  filthy  street  too  often.  If  our  part  of  town  is 
clean,  we  are  not  very  particular  about  the  "darkies."  They 
are  dirty,  anyway.  Undoubtedly.  And  we  too  would  be 


116  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

dirty  if  we  had  to  go  down  the  street  for  water — a  dozen 
families  to  one  hydrant  or  one  foul  old  well — and  "tote" 
every  drop  for  family  use  in  a  lard  bucket  or  an  old  tin 
pan.  Anyway,  our  little  "darky"  grows  up  in  dirt — dirt 
that  the  city  ought,  by  law,  to  remove,  and  dirt  that  the 
city  ought,  by  enforcement  of  law,  to  prevent  the  negroes 
from  casting  into  the  street.  He  gets  used  to  dead  cats  and 
dogs  in  the  alley,  and  to  decaying  garbage,  and  to  un- 
speakable filth,  moral  and  physical,  in  the  outhouses  allowed 
in  the  negro  quarters  of  perfectly  respectable  cities.  The 
white  man's  vice  district  is  cheek  by  jowl  with  his  home. 
White  men,  tolerated,  if  not  encouraged,  by  the  police,  teach 
him  contempt  for  law,  while  they  make  money  selling 
negroes  liquor.  For  negroes,  as  we  all  know,  are  a  drunken 
set.  But  it  is  the  white  man  who  manufactures  what  makes 
him  drunk,  makes  money  off  his  drunkenness,  and  tempts 
his  children  to  drink :  all  for  money,  all  in  defiance  of  law, 
all  under  the  protection  of  the  authorities.  So  our  little 
"darky"  has  scant  respect  for  law:  he  gets  that  from  the 
white  man.  Scant  respect  for  virtue,  too,  brought  up  in 
the  white  man's  vice  district.  He  is  robbed  of  his  human 
birthright — the  child's  opportunity  to  know  decency — be- 
fore he  learns  that  such  a  thing  exists. 

Some  day  he  gets  drunk  and  flourishes  a  razor.  Or  per- 
haps he  commits  a  deadlier  crime :  he  steals  something  from 
a  white  man. 

A  few  weeks  ago  at  a  certain  railroad  station  I  saw  a 
scared-looking  negro  boy  of  eighteen  arrested  by  three  or 
four  big  policemen.  A  great  crowd  gathered,  while  they 
waited  for  the  "Black  Maria,"  and  stared  at  the  cowering 
boy.  After  he  had  gone  a  policeman  told  me  he  had  stolen 
a  box  of  cigars. 

"What  will  they  do  to  him?"  I  asked. 

"0,  he'll  get  about  fifteen  years,"  he  said  carelessly. 

I  exclaimed  in  horror. 

He  considered.  "Well,  maybe  not.  He's  young.  Like 
enough  he'll  get  off  with  ten." 

And  come  out  a  finished  criminal,  to  prey  on  the  society 
which  preyed  on  him !  He  stole  a  box  of  cigars.  We  stole 
his  birthright.  Let  God  judge  between  us. 


THE   TEST   OF  CIVILIZATION  117 

Isn't  it  cheaper  to  give  him  a  chance — just  cheaper,  in 
dollars  and  cents?  Long  ago  an  old  English  bishop  said  of 
the  children  in  London's  slums  that  they  were  not  born 
into  the  world,  but  damned  into  it.  It  is  an  old  trick  of 
the  privileged  classes — this  allowing  children  to  be  damned 
into  the  world.  Damnation  is  not  particular  about  the  color 
line;  it  is  as  swift  for  black  as  for  white. 

Our  duty  to  the  negro  is  as  clear  as  day.  It  is  the  duty 
of  strength  to  weakness,  the  world  around ;  of  knowledge  to 
ignorance;  of  the  privileged  to  those  shut  out;  the  plain, 
simple,  human  duty  that  cuts  through  prejudice  and  sophis- 
try as  a  sword  cuts  threads.  We  must  give  him  justice  and 
opportunity;  and  we  have  not  given  them  yet. 

I  cannot  think  it  is  wickedness  in  us.  I  thought  it  was 
wickedness  in  England,  years  ago,  when  the  whole  country 
shrank  in  angry  horror,  not  from  hideous  injustice,  but  from 
the  man  who  dared  to  tell  that  it  was  done.  That  Stead 
should  be  in  jail  seemed  to  me  the  personal  disgrace  of 
every  free  Englishman.  I  thought  the  North  was  wicked,  to 
a  man,  when  as  a  young  girl  I  first  learned  about  the  chil- 
dren in  the  sweatshops.  They  were  rich  up  there,  they 
claimed  to  love  justice,  they  had  power,  and  they  knew.  Yet 
nothing  was  done.  I  thought  they  were  all  hypocrites. 

But  I  have  come  to  understand.  We  are  all  like  children, 
and,  like  children,  we  see  only  in  part.  Like  children,  we 
have  our  times  of  sudden  growth,  our  periods  of  long 
quiescence.  One  world  after  another  opens  to  children: 
First,  the  world  of  sense;  then,  more  slowly,  the  world  of 
mind ;  last,  and  most  slowly,  the  world  of  spirit.  Children, 
and  men,  and  races  of  men,  we  grow  that  way. 

The  foremost  races  at  last  approach,  as  races,  the  world 
of  spirit.  Vision  is  coming  to  just-opening  eyes:  a  vision 
of  human  oneness,  of  human  brotherhood,  of  world-wide  ob- 
ligation. We  could  not  see  it  before;  we  knew  not  what 
we  did.  All  the  old  foundations  of  human  life  are  being 
tested,  that  only  the  unshakable  may  remain.  Justice  and 
opportunity  for  all — that  is  the  new  world-cry.  Our  ears, 
too,  are  catching  it.  Its  answer  stirs  deeper  in  our  souls. 
Some  new  things  in  us  yearns  for  it  for  those  who  have 
it  not. 


118  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

I  would  not  minify  the  difficulties  of  its  achievement. 
Things  worth  doing  always  cost ;  and  neglect  piles  up  debts 
with  compound  interest.  But  in  all  men,  everywhere,  there 
is  a  spark  of  that  fire  of  God  which  can  flame  into  such 
a  passion  for  humanity  that  it  does  count  the  cost.  It 
is  the  light  that  leads  the  race;  and  it  will  burn  for  us  of 
the  South.  We  are  not  a  people  to  count  the  cost;  our 
glorious  past  proves  it.  The  life  of  the  race  is  our  life; 
we  too  can  take  the  world-wide  look.  We  too  can  so  build 
our  foundations  in  justice  that  every  black  man  may  know 
the  sure  shelter  of  the  law,  and  the  poorest  children  grow 
up  in  decent  homes,  cared  for,  taught  life's  lessons  in  clean 
play,  sheltered  from  the  contamination  of  our  vice  districts, 
trained  to  do  honest  work  and  willing  to  give  it,  because 
they  are  sure  of  honest  work's  reward. 

As  a  people  of  a  section  we  may  well  be  helpless,  strug- 
gling blindly  with  disjointed  circumstances.  As  part  of  all 
humanity  we  share  the  race-task:  to  widen  the  bounds  of 
justice,  to  open  the  doors  of  opportunity  for  all,  to  blend  our 
small  lives  with  that  great  Power  which  makes  for  righteous- 
ness for  all  the  races  of  men. 


THE  WHITE  MAN'S  TASK  IN  THE  UPLIFT  OF  THE 

NEGRO 

REV.    ARTHUR    J.    BARTON,    D.D.,    CORRESPONDING    SECRETARY, 

EDUCATION  BOARD,  BAPTIST  GENERAL  CONVENTION 

OF  TEXAS,  WACO 

PERSONAL  words  are  not  quite  in  place  on  such  occasions 
as  this.  But,  owing  to  the  nature  of  my  subject,  dealing  as 
it  does  with  the  relation  of  the  races,  you  will  cheerfully 
indulge  me,  I  think,  in  a  word  or  two  of  a  personal  nature. 
I  speak  as  a  Southern  man  to  Southern  men.  I  was  born 
and  reared  in  the  South,  my  father  belonged  to  a  South 
Carolina  slaveholding  family.  While  I  myself  was  born  and 
reared  in  Arkansas  and  was  not  in  constant  association  with 


WHITE  MAN'S  TASK  IN  THE  UPLIFT  OF  THE  NEGRO      119 

the  negroes  during  my  childhood,  I  have  nevertheless  been 
constantly  thrown  with  the  race  for  nearly  thirty  years.  In 
addition,  I  have  inherited  that  genuine  love  for  the  negro 
that  was  cherished  in  the  bosom  of  the  better  class  of  white 
people  of  the  South  in  the  olden  days.  I  speak,  therefore, 
in  full  sympathy  and  genuine  affection  for  the  negroes.  I 
have  visited  their  religious  associations  and  conventions  in 
almost  every  State  in  the  South.  I  have  never  missed  an 
opportunity,  in  season  or  out  of  season,  to  speak  a  word 
of  hope  and  cheer  to  the  race  or  in  behalf  of  the  race.  From 
my  own  point  of  view,  therefore,  I  feel  quite  untrammeled 
in  speaking  of  the  white  man's  task  in  the  uplift  of  the  race. 
I  feel  equally  free  as  far  as  your  attitude  is  concerned,  for 
you  come  as  the  representatives  of  the  best  element  of  the 
white  people  of  the  South.  Before  the  war  there  were  three 
classes  of  people  in  the  South:  the  first-class  white  folks 
(most  of  whom  owned  slaves),  the  negroes,  and  the  "po' 
white  trash"  (as  the  negroes  were  accustomed  to  call  the 
less  frugal  element  among  the  whites).  Whenever  you  hear 
any  white  man  of  Southern  ancestry  abusing  the  negro,  you 
may  know  that  he  comes  from  the  latter  element.  All  the 
first-class  white  folk  have  a  genuine  love  for  the  negro. 
Recognizing  you  as  belonging  to  this  class,  and  knowing  your 
sentiments,  I  feel  that  I  may  speak  with  the  greatest  free- 
dom. 

As  expressing  most  fully  my  own  feelings,  I  give  this 
incident.  About  the  same  time  my  father  moved  from  South 
Carolina  to  Arkansas,  which  was  just  before  the  war,  a 
greatuncle  of  mine,  Col.  Wilson  Barton,  together  with  other 
members  of  the  family,  moved  from  South  Carolina  to  Wil- 
liamson County,  Tex.  They  carried  with  them  some  of  the 
old  family  servants.  A  few  years  ago  I  was  holding  evan- 
gelistic meetings  at  Liberty  Hill,  Williamson  County,  Tex., 
and  those  colored  friends  were  much  interested  in  my  visit, 
coming  from  far  and  near  to  see  me  and  talk  with  me.  As 
you  know,  even  to  this  good  day,  the  crown  prince  of  a  ne- 
gro's heart  is  his  young  "master"  who  is  a  preacher.  One  day 
I  was  taking  dinner  with  a  cousin  in  the  country.  One  of 
these  descendants,  a  good-natured  negro  woman  of  ample 
proportions,  was  assisting  my  cousin  about  the  kitchen  and 


120  THE    HUMAN   WAY 

dining  room.  After  dinner  she  asked  me  to  take  a  seat  on 
the  porch  near  the  kitchen  door  so  that  as  she  passed  in  and 
out  doing  her  work  she  could  talk  with  me.  Some  of  the 
children  of  the  family  observed  the  situation  and  twitted  me 
sharply  about  my  sitting  out  there  and  talking  to  the  cook. 
The  good-natured  black  woman  shook  her  ample  sides  with 
laughter  and  said :  "Lor',  yes,  honey,  cose  he  is,  cose  he  is. 
Don't  you  know  us  Bartons  is  all  kinfolks  anyhow?"  That 
expressed  her  feeling  and  expresses  mine.  I  have  a  feel- 
ing of  kinship  for  the  negro  that  is  nigh  to  the  ties  of  blood. 
As  far  back  as  I  can  remember  my  child  heart  glowed  with 
enthusiasm  and  joy  as  I  heard  my  father  tell  of  Jerry  and 
York,  of  how  many  chestnut  rails  they  could  cut  and  split 
in  a  day,  and  of  what  mighty  tasks  they  could  do.  They 
were  his  heroes;  they  are  mine.  I  love  their  names,  their 
memories.  So  I  come  to-day  to  speak  to  you,  feeling  that 
we,  the  first-class  white  folks  of  the  South,  and  our  negro 
neighbors  and  friends,  descendants,  for  the  most  part,  of 
our  old  family  servants,  are  bound  together  not  only  by  the 
indissoluble  industrial,  commercial,  and  civic  bonds  of  the 
present  day,  but  by  many  of  the  tenderest  and  sweetest 
memories  of  the  past.  We  may  therefore  deal  in  the  utmost 

frankness  with  every  phase  of  the  relation  of  the  races. 

i  ' 

THE  WHITE  MAN'S  TASK  IN  THE  UPLIFT  OF  THE  NEGRO 

And  so  we  have  come  to  regard  it  as  a  task !  A  task  is 
a  definite  portion  of  work  assigned  one  by  authority,  en- 
joined upon  one  as  an  obligation  by  the  circumstances,  or 
voluntarily  assumed.  Our  work  in  the  uplift  of  the  negro 
race  is  a  task  certainly  from  the  first  and  second  points  of 
view.  The  pity  of  it  is  that  we  have  not  hitherto  been  more 
ready  to  recognize  and  assume  the  task.  The  joy  of  it  is 
that  we  are  coming  now  to  recognize  our  task  and  are  set- 
ting our  hands  to  its  performance.  This  fact  has  many  dem- 
onstrations, not  the  least  of  which  are  the  plans  and  work  of 
this  Congress.  We  recognize  frankly  that  the  performance 
of  the  task  is  beset  by  many,  even  almost  innumerable  and 
insuperable,  difficulties,  but  we  do  not  shrink  from  our  task 
because  it  seems  difficult. 


WHITE  MAN'S  TASK  IN  THE  UPLIFT  OF  THE  NEGRO      121 

We  shall  be  able  to  undertake  this  task,  as  we  undertake 
all  tasks,  with  the  greater  zest  and  enthusiasm  if  there 
seems  to  be  good  hope  of  its  accomplishment.  With  all  its 
difficulties,  is  the  present  task  hopeful?  Has  the  negro  made 
any  advancement?  Has  he  received  any  uplift?  Is  he 
capable  of  further  and  greater  uplift?  These  are  questions 
that  will  inevitably  confront  the  thoughtful  student  of  con- 
ditions as  he  approaches,  with  timidity  or  boldness,  the  task 
which  has  been  set  for  us  both  by  Providence  and  by  cir- 
cumstances, and  which  we  are  now  beginning  voluntarily 
to  recognize  and  assume. 

I  desire  to  bring  you  a  heart  message,  an  exhortation, 
rather  than  to  weary  you  with  statistics.  I  appeal  to  the 
general  aspects  of  the  case  rather  than  to  specific  data.  I 
appeal  to  your  hearts  more  than  to  your  sense  of  arithmetic. 
Not  that  there  are  no  figures.  There  are  figures  in 
abundance.  Rev.  Dr.  B.  F.  Riley  in  his  recent  sane  and 
strong  book,  "The  White  Man's  Burden,"  makes  this  grati- 
fying showing  concerning  the  progress  of  the  race.  He 
says  that  there  are  32,000  youths  of  the  negro  race  engaged 
in  the  acquirement  of  trades  and  valuable  occupations ;  300,- 
000  farms  purchased  and  owned  by  negroes;  50  or  more 
banks  established  and  maintained  by  negro  capital;  10,000 
places  of  business  in  the  cities  of  our  country ;  $600,000,000 
worth  of  taxable  property  in  possession  of  negro  owners; 
28,000  public  schools  manned  by  30,000  negro  teachers ;  170 
industrial  schools  and  colleges  conducted  by  negroes ;  23,000 
ministers;  26,000  meetinghouses  owned  and  paid  for  by 
negroes ;  to  say  nothing  of  the  large  number  of  missionaries 
on  different  and  varied  fields  of  the  globe.  This  is  only  a 
brief  summary.  The  figures  might  be  extended  to  any 
length.  Without  stopping  for  argument,  I  assume  boldly 
and  confidently  that  no  sane,  impartial  student  of  our  his- 
tory and  conditions  can  fail  to  see  that  the  constant  trend  of 
the  race  is  upward.  Some  may  say  that  this  is  true  only  of 
an  element  and  that  there  is  another  element  of  the  race 
which  has  gone  backward.  Others  may  say  that  even  this 
element  that  seems  to  have  advanced  has  not  really  ad- 
vanced. At  this  point  some  of  our  good  Southern  white 
people  mistake.  We  often  hear  some  of  them  say  that  in 


122  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

the  days  of  slavery  when  he  was  ignorant  the  negro  was  so 
much  better  than  he  is  now.  The  truth  is,  he  was  a  ma- 
chine; his  virtues  and  his  vices  alike  were  repressed;  his 
soul  was  cramped;  his  mind  was  shriveled;  he  was  kept 
within  the  narrow  groove  of  servitude.  For  the  most  part 
he  had  neither  encouragement  nor  opportunity  for  educa- 
tion, development,  and  growth,  just  as  he  had  little  oppor- 
tunity for  outbreaking  sin.  Under  present  conditions  free 
personality  is  finding  self-expression.  Even  if  only  10  per 
cent  of  the  negro  race  could  read  and  write  and  had  found 
some  sort  of  training  and  development  in  industry  and 
morals,  the  race  itself  would  be  far  better  off  than  for- 
merly. 

One  of  the  unfortunate  things  about  the  relation  of  the 
two  races  is  that  since  emancipation,  for  the  last  fifty  years, 
the  better  element  of  our  white  people  have  had  no  point  of 
contact  with  the  better  element  of  the  negroes.  We  come 
into  contact  with  the  criminal  classes  in  the  courts  and  with 
the  servant  classes  in  our  homes.  We  have  almost  or  quite 
no  contact  with  and  hence  no  knowledge  of  the  growing 
element  of  self-respecting,  self-supporting,  right-thinking, 
right-living  negroes,  who  are  and  shall  be  to  their  race  just 
what  this  element  of  every  race  is  to  the  race  as  a  whole — 
namely,  the  salt  that  shall  save  and  the  light  that  shall 
guide  up  the  steep  and  rough  pathway  of  human  progress. 
We  must  learn  that  there  are  negroes  and  negroes,  and  thus 
form  a  more  just,  a  more  charitable,  and  a  more  hopeful 
judgment  of  the  progress  and  potentialities  of  the  race  as  a 
whole.  Let  it  be  said  also  that  the  conditions  of  vice  and 
crime  found  among  any  part  of  the  negro  race  may  be 
immediately  matched  among  the  criminal  element  of  the 
white  race.  In  the  present  situation  as  a  whole  there  is 
the  certain  message  of  hope  and  cheer;  we  may  sound  the 
clear,  high,  steady  note  of  confidence  as  we  approach  our 
task  of  uplift  for  the  race. 

Another  question  that  ought  to  be  asked  is  of  scarcely 
less  import.  Is  there  any  need  ?  Has  not  the  uplift  already 
been  sufficiently  accomplished  that  the  white  man,  more  for- 
tunate and  favored,  may  hold  himself  aloof  and  leave  the 
forces  of  civilization  already  set  in  motion  to  work  out 


WHITE  MAN'S  TASK  IN  THE  UPLIFT  OF  THE  NEGRO      123 

their  result  in  the  negro  race  without  sympathy  and  help 
from  the  white  man  ?  Is  there  sufficient  need  to  accentuate 
our  task  and  our  obligation?  To  ask  the  question  is  to 
answer  it.  For  the  informed  and  sympathetic  it  is  probably 
unnecessary  to  say  a  word  accentuating  the  needs  of  the 
race.  Yet  if  we  may  see  the  real  need,  if  we  may  see  how 
the  welfare  not  only  of  the  black  but  of  the  white  race  as 
well  is  involved,  we  shall  lay  hold  of  our  task  with  a  steadier 
and  stronger  hand.  Recognizing  fully  the  progress  that  has 
been  made,  and  rejoicing  heartily  in  this  progress,  we  yet 
look  out  upon  a  black  mass  of  humanity  ten  millions  strong 
in  the  South,  with  a  large  additional  contingent  in  other 
sections  of  the  country,  for  the  most  part  steeped  in  igno- 
rance, thriftless  in  economic  habits,  unskilled  in  labor,  emo- 
tional but  immoral  in  religion,  and  only  feebly  aspiring,  in 
thousands  of  cases  not  at  all,  to  higher  and  better  things. 

A  little  story  in  my  personal  experience  will  illustrate 
and  enforce  the  need  for  the  uplift.  In  an  Arkansas  town 
I  was  holding  a  meeting.  It  was  the  spring  of  the  year  and 
the  gardens  were  being  planted.  There  was  an  old-time 
negro  man  working  around  the  house  and  garden  of  my  host. 
I  learned  from  the  family  that  he  was  a  Baptist  preacher. 
Going  out  to  the  garden,  I  engaged  him  in  conversation.  I 
said:  "Well,  uncle,  you  are  a  preacher,  are  you?"  His 
face  lighted  up  as  he  said :  "Yas,  sah,  boss,  yas  sah,  I' si  a 
preacher."  "You  are  a  Baptist  preacher,  aren't  you?"  He 
said:  "Yes,  sah,  boss,  'cose  I's  a  Baptist  preacher.  You 
seldom  see  no  nigger  'cep'in'  what's  a  Baptist."  "Well,"  I 
said,  "are  you  a  good  man  ?"  "Well,  I  don'  know  'bout  dat, 
boss;  I  don'  know,  sah.  I  tries  to  be."  "Well,  do  you  do 
anything  wrong?"  "Well,  I  don'  know,  sah.  I  'spec  I  does, 
but  I  tries  to  do  right,  sah."  "Well,  let  me  see.  Now,  for 
example,  do  you  ever  drink  anything?"  With  a  hearty 
chuckle  he  said:  "Yes,  sah,  boss,  yes,  sah;  'cose  I  drinks 
sometimes.  You  nevah  see  no  nigger  'cep'in'  what  drinks." 
I  said  sternly :  "I  am  ashamed  of  you.  Here  you  are,  pro- 
fessing to  be  a  preacher,  and  a  Baptist  preacher  at  that,  and 
going  down  here  to  these  miserable  saloons  and  buying 
whisky  and  drinking  it."  He  drew  back  and  said  with  su- 
preme scorn:  "Who  dat  yo'  talkin'  about?  Who  go  to  de 


124  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

saloon?  Me?  No,  sah,  boss,  no,  sah;  I  don'  go  to  no 
saloon,"  I  said:  "Well,  how  do  you  get  your  liquor?" 
With  a  chuckle  he  said :  "Well,  boss,  I  gits  some  o'  my  mem- 
bers to  go  down  da'  and  git  it  fer  me."  "Well,  what  is  the 
difference?  You  just  as  well  go  and  get  it  yourself."  "No, 
sah,  boss,  no,  sah ;  da's  whar  you  don'  understand  ag'in.  You 
see,  Fs  a  preacher,  and  I's  got  to  take  care  o'  my  influence. 
If  I  go  down  da'  to  de  saloon  and  buy  liquor  and  some  o' 
my  members  see  me,  I  nevah  could  fix  it  up  wid  'em  in  the 
roun'  worl',  but  I  gits  some  o'  my  members  to  go  down  da' 
and  git  dat  liquor,  and  den  I  goes  off  to  myself  and  drinks  it, 
and  den  I  kin  git  out  and  fix  dat  up  wid  de  Lo'd  in  fifteen 
minutes." 

It  is  a  homely  story,  and  humorous.  You  and  I  smile  at 
it,  but  we  should  be  careful  lest  we  smile  at  our  own  photo- 
graph. It  was  not  so  much  the  negro  in  the  old  man  as  it 
was  the  human  nature.  It  is  like  thousands  of  others  that 
might  be  related,  and  illustrates  in  a  most  striking  and 
appealing  manner  the  need  for  the  uplift  of  'this  great, 
potential  mass  of  humanity. 

Moreover,  from  our  point  of  view,  this  need  is  not  simply 
objective;  it  is  subjective  as  well.  With  all  possible  empha- 
sis, let  it  be  said  that  the  white  man  of  this  nation,  and 
especially  of  our  Southland,  where  the  negro  numbers  one- 
third  of  the  population,  is  almost  or  quite  as  vitally  con- 
cerned in  this  matter  as  is  the  negro  himself.  Purely  as  a 
matter  of  self-defense,  the  uplift  of  the  negro  is  obligatory 
upon  us.  One  rotten  potato  spoils  the  whole  barrel.  One 
dead  limb  on  the  tree  sends  its  blight  of  death  to  the  very 
heart.  An  ignorant,  immoral,  vicious  element  among  any 
people  anywhere  will  send  its  poison  through  the  whole  body 
politic.  No  white  man  in  the  South,  whether  he  live  up  on 
the  boulevard  or  down  in  the  alley,  whether  he  belong  to  the 
high  class  or  the  low,  is  independent  of  or  unaffected  by  the 
intellectual,  social,  industrial,  moral,  and  spiritual  condi- 
tions which  obtain  among  the  negroes.  No  matter  how 
proud  we  may  be,  no  matter  how  conscientious,  no  matter 
how  devout,  neither  we  nor  our  children  can  be  unaffected 
by,  nor  ought  we  to  be  unconcerned  about,  the  condition  of 
the  negro.  Not  only  from  the  standpoint  of  self-defense, 


WHITE  MAN'S  TASK  IN  THE  UPLIFT  OF  THE  NEGRO      125 

but  from  the  standpoint  of  a  high  and  holy  altruism,  the 
white  man  needs  to  undertake  and  perform  this  task.  We 
need  the  elevating  and  sanctifying  influence  of  this  task.  As 
we  shall  go  out  in  the  spirit  of  the  good  Samaritan  to  bind 
up  and  mollify  the  open,  bleeding  wounds  of  this  great  race, 
we  ourselves  shall  be  healed. 

The  uplift  itself  should  come,  it  seems  to  me,  at  four 
points,  or  in  four  realms. 

First,  in  the  matter  of  the  protection  and  preservation 
of  the  human  rights  of  the  negro.  It  would  be  a  mere  com- 
monplace to  say  that  no  race  can  aspire  to  a  high  and  noble 
achievement  while  its  human  rights  are  in  constant 
jeopardy,  liable  at  any  moment  to  be  trampled  upon  by  the 
iron  heel  of  inhuman  and  inconsiderate  strength.  In  no 
spirit  of  railing  accusation  against  our  own  people,  but  in 
candid  recognition  of  the  facts,  we  must  face  conditions  as 
they  are.  You  know  and  I  know  that  the  human  rights  of 
the  negro  are  not  fairly  protected  before  the  bar  of  our 
land.  I  started  to  say  the  bar  of  justice  in  our  land,  but 
that  would  be  a  misnomer.  The  negro  "shoots  craps"  down 
in  the  alley,  and  the  next  morning  appears  in  the  police 
court  and  is  sent  to  the  city  jail  or  to  the  chain  gang.  Well- 
dressed  society  women  in  brilliantly  lighted  parlors  game  for 
cut  glass  punch  bowls  or  other  expensive  prizes,  and  the 
next  morning  their  names  appear  on  the  honor  roll  in  the 
society  column.  The  negro  steals  a  pig  or  a  pair  of  shoes ; 
he  goes  to  prison.  The  white  man  steals  a  bank  or  an  in- 
surance company  or  a  railroad ;  he  remains  one  of  the  cap- 
tains of  finance,  often  without  ever  being  arrested.  If  you 
will  go  and  sit  in  one  of  our  city  courts  and  watch  the  grind, 
you  will  discover  that  the  negro  has  no  real  chance  in  the 
matter  of  human  rights.  This  may  be  said  of  the  lower 
white  classes  also,  but  it  is  emphatically  and  preeminently 
true  of  the  negro.  Added  to  the  lack  of  justice  in  the  courts 
we  have  the  fiendishness  of  the  mob.  If  a  negro  commits  a 
crime  of  serious  nature,  sometimes  of  trivial  nature,  often 
the  mob  spirit  is  aroused,  and  law  and  order,  courts  and 
justice,  are  thrown  to  the  winds,  and  he  is  carried  out  and 
strung  up  by  the  roadside,  or  his  body  is  riddled  with  bul- 
lets, or  he  is  burned  in  the  city  square.  If  our  system  of 


126  THE    HUMAN   WAY 

government  is  not  strong  enough  to  protect  the  rights  of  the 
humblest  and  the  weakest  of  our  citizens,  then  ultimately 
no  human  right  is  secure.  If  the  rich  are  protected  in  their 
human  rights  through  their  riches  and  their  position,  then 
it  is  they  themselves  that  protect  themselves,  and  we  are 
living  under  an  oligarchy.  No  sheriff  or  other  officer  of 
the  law  ought  ever  to  release  his  prisoner  to  the  mob, 
whether  he  be  black  or  white,  nor  ought  ever  to  allow  the 
mob  to  take  his  prisoner  except  over  his  own  dead  body.  It 
is  good  that  mob  violence  is  greatly  diminished,  but  it  is  a 
sad  spectacle  that  the  Governor  of  a  Southern  State,  in  a 
public  meeting,  should  openly  defend  and  encourage  this  the 
worst  species  of  outlawry  and  crime  and  anarchy,  as  one 
recently  did.  There  must  come  a  quickening  of  the  con- 
science on  the  part  of  our  people  that  will  conserve  and  pro- 
tect the  human  rights  of  the  negro,  so  that  he  shall  feel  that 
he  has  the  same  protection  as  any  other  citizen,  and  that  he 
can  therefore  aspire  to  the  highest  and  best  things.  The 
strength  of  the  whole  State  stands  in  theory  pledged,  and 
should  stand  in  fact  pledged,  for  the  protection  of  the  life 
and  limb  and  property  of  the  humblest  citizen  in  the  land. 
No  man  ought  to  be  condemned  or  be  allowed  to  suffer  harm 
without  due  process  of  law.  No  race  can  receive  the  largest 
possible  uplift  until  the  human  rights  of  that  race  are  re- 
spected and  secured. 

The  uplift  must  come  also  in  the  realm  of  industry.  We 
of  the  South  may  justly  be  proud  of  one  thing:  that  in  the 
South,  of  all  places  in  the  world,  the  negro  has  the  best 
opportunity  to  earn  an  honest  living.  I  believe  it  was  Dr. 
Booker  T.  Washington  who  said  that  in  the  South  the  negro 
has  the  best  chance  to  earn  a  dollar,  and  in  the  North  the 
best  chance  to  spend  it  in  the  theater.  As  statistics  show, 
there  is  an  encouraging  percentage  of  the  race  now  turning 
to  the  farm,  where  they  live  in  the  open,  enjoy  God's  sun- 
shine, breathe  God's  free  air,  drink  God's  pure  water,  and 
have  the  best  of  all  industrial  opportunities.  In  the  cities 
they  work  on  our  streets,  in  our  stores,  in  our  hotels,  in  our 
offices,  and  in  a  thousand  and  one  other  places,  moving  with 
the  utmost  freedom  among  our  people,  without  friction  or 
jealousy  except  in  the  rarest  instances.  In  this  we  rejoice. 


WHITE  MAN'S  TASK  IN  THE  UPLIFT  OF  THE  NEGRO      127 

The  industrial  rights  of  the  negro  must  be  preserved  and 
perpetuated.  Immigration  into  the  South  is  growing  and 
labor  is  organizing.  With  the  increasing  number  of  servant 
classes  and  with  the  growing  number  and  influences  of 
trades-unions,  there  is  danger  that  the  negro  may  be  driven 
into  a  corner  and  may  have  his  industrial  opportunities  cut 
off  to  a  degree  hurtful  alike  to  himself  and  to  the  Anglo- 
Saxon.  This  point  must  be  guarded  with  jealous  care.  We 
have  talked  of  the  race  problem  as  though  it  were  a  problem 
only  between  the  white  man  and  the  black  man,  and  this 
chiefly  in  the  South.  The  truth  is,  the  race  problem  exists 
wherever  there, are  different  races,  and  the  problem  as  be- 
tween the  white  race  and  the  black  race  is  more  acute  and 
aggravated  in  the  North  than  in  the  South.  Here  in  the 
South  we, understand  the  negro  and  he  understands  us.  In 
all  of  these  industrial  and  economic  and  commercial  rela- 
tions we  give  him  a  free  hand  to  earn  an  honest  living,  thus 
protecting  him  against, the  pauperism  and  crime  of  idleness. 
My  plea  to-day  is  that  his  hands  shall  never  be  tied. 

Another  point  at  which  our  effort  for  the  negro's  uplift 
must  find  ; expression  is  education.  No  race  of  people  can 
receive  broad  and  thorough  uplift  without  education.  The 
capacity  for  learning  and  the  desire  to  learn,  the  capacity 
for  growth  and  the  desire  to  grow, 'are  God's  unmistakable 
testimony  that  he  intends  that  every  human  being  shall  have 
a  chance  for  learning  and  growth.  The  South,  for  the  most 
part,  has  been  willing  to  evangelize  the  negro;  but  a  large 
element  of  our  people,  even  of 'our  good  Christian  people, 
have  thought  that  evangelism  is  all  that  the  negro  needs — 
this,  too,  with  a  narrow  and  inadequate  interpretation  upon 
evangelism.  They  :have  not  been  willing  that  he  should  be 
educated.  Despite  this,  the  South  has  done  much  for  the 
negro's  education.  The  taxpayers  of  the  South  have  put 
many  millions  of  dollars  into  negro 'education  since  the  war. 
We  have  three  classes  of  taxpayers.  First,  the  thoughtless 
and  the  unconcerned,  who  pay  their  taxes,  not  stopping  to 
think  or  question  how  or  where  the  public  funds  are  ex- 
pended. Second,  those  who  recognize  that  a  portion  of  the 
taxes  goes  to  the  education  of  the  negro  and  rebel  at  the 
thought.  Third,  the  intelligent  and  sympathetic,  who  rec- 


128  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

ognize  that  a  good  portion  of  the  taxes  goes  to  the  education 
of  the  negro  and  are  glad  of  it. 

While  the  South  has  done  much  for  the  negro's  educa- 
tion through  taxation,  Southern  philanthropy  and  personal 
benevolence  have  not  put  themselves  on  record  in  any  large 
way  for  the  education  of  the  negro.  I  mention  with  pride 
the  fact  that  one  of  our  broad-minded,  public-spirited  cit- 
izens of  Texas  has  recently  given  $40,000  to  one  of  the  Negro 
Baptist  Conventions;'  of  Texas  for  the  enlargement  and 
strengthening  of  their  schools,  conditioned  on  their  raising 
a  given  sum.  This  is  a  hopeful  indication.  The  time  ought 
to  come  speedily  when  scores  and  scores  of  white  men  in  the 
South  who  have  been  blessed  with  large  possessions  shall 
see  in  the  education  of  the  negro  one  of  their  greatest  oppor- 
tunities and  shall  put  large  sums  of  money  upon  the  altar 
for  this  purpose. 

We  need  not  here  discuss  the  kind  of  education  the  negro 
needs.  We  have  had  much  said  at  this  point.  The  word 
that  needs  most  to  be  said,  as  it  seems  to  me,  is  that  the 
negro  is  a  human  being.  In  his  education  the  same  prin- 
ciples should  govern  and  control  that  govern  and  control  in 
the  education  of  any  race  of  people.  The  character  and 
nature  of  his  education  must  be  determined  by  the  character 
of  labor  which  he  is  to  perform.  Some  believe  that  entirely 
too  much  of  past  effort  has  been  devoted  to  classical  educa- 
tion, that  practically  all  the  emphasis  should  be  put  upon 
industrial  education  and  training.  Personally  I  would  not 
put  all  the  emphasis  at  one  place  nor  the  other.  I  for  one 
rejoice  in  every  well-educated  doctor,  preacher,  lawyer,  and 
other  professional  man  of  the  race.  We  have  a  sufficient 
number  of  such  men  to  demonstrate  that  many  individuals 
of  the  race  are  capable  of  worthy  achievement  in  literary 
and  classical  and  scientific  fields.  Of  course,  it  remains  true 
with  the  negro,  as  with  all  other  races,  that  a  great  majority 
of  them  cannot  be  lawyers  or  doctors  or  preachers  or  profes- 
sional men  of  any  other  rank  or  calling,  but  must  pursue 
trades  and  serve  in  industrial  positions.  This  being  true, 
it  goes  without  saying  that  industrial  education  must  hold 
a  large  place  in  any  scheme  or  program  for  the  education  of 
the  negro  that  has  for  its  aim  a  general  racial  uplift.  While 


WHITE  MAN'S  TASK  IN  THE  UPLIFT  OF  THE  NEGRO      129 

he  has  industrial  freedom  and  industrial  opportunity,  the 
negro  does  not  have  adequate  industrial  skill,  an  industrial 
skill  commensurate  with  his  need  or  ours.  If  you  and  I  are 
to  set  our  hands  wisely,  earnestly,  religiously  to  the  task  of 
the  negro's  uplift,  we  must  see  that  he  has  industrial  train- 
ing such  as  will  fit  him  for  his  industrial  tasks  and  enable 
him  to  meet  his  industrial  opportunities. 

In  the  content  of  the  uplift  perhaps  the  most  important 
thing  of  all  is  religion.  The  negro  is — I  had  almost  said 
instinctively  and  intuitively  religious.  Perhaps  this  would 
be  true  of  any  race.  Man  has  been  called  the  religious  ani- 
mal. Possibly  the  negro  might  not  seem  more  religious  than 
the  Anglo-Saxon  if  the  Anglo-Saxon  were  as  natural  and  un- 
affected as  the  negro,  if  the  Anglo-Saxon  gave  as  sincere  and 
frank  expression  to  the  real  impulses,  uprisings,  and  out- 
goings of  his  heart  as  does  the  negro.  But  not  to  press  the 
comparison,  it  may  be  said  that  the  negro  is  emphatically 
religious.  Any  program  for  his  uplift  that  fails  to  reckon 
with  that  and  that  fails  to  enable  him  to  make  the  nexus 
between  religion  and  morals  will  fail  in  its  purpose.  This 
is  true  of  any  race  and  of  all  races.  The  foundation  of  all 
reform  and  the  chief  fundamental  in  all  uplift  is  religion. 
All  of  our  social  service  will  quickly  come  to  naught  if  we 
lose  sight  of  the  gospel  which  has  been  the  creative  force 
behind  every  worthy  ideal  that  we  cherish.  The  need  for  a 
pure  gospel  and  a  pure,  unadulterated  religion  in  the  case  of 
the  negro  is  greatly  accentuated  by  his  long  centuries  of 
barbarism  and  of  slavery  and  by  the  impulsiveness  of  his 
nature.  He  must  have  moderation  and  self-control,  to  re- 
strain the  evil  impulses  and  proclivities  of  the  fleshly  nature. 
He  must  have  a  cultured  and  clean  and  strong  ministry  of 
his  own  race.  We  rejoice  unspeakably  that  already  a  great 
host  of  negro  ministers  are  of  this  type,  but  it  is  sad  to  say 
that  many  thousands  of  negro  congregations  are  ministered 
to  by  men  incapable,  both  in  intellectual  training  and  in 
moral  and  religious  ideals  and  consistency,  to  minister  to 
people  in  religion  or  to  lead  them  to  any  high  and  worthy 
achievement.  It  is  your  task  and  mine,  by  the  building  of 
schools  and  in  other  ways,  to  see  to  it  that  the  negro  ministry 
is  intelligent  and  capable  and  consistent. 


130  THE    HUMAN   WAY 

Moreover,  we  have  a  direct  personal  debt  in  this  matter 
of  the  religion  of  the  negro.  The  white  ministry  of  America 
ought  constantly  to  visit  the  negro  congregations  and  preach 
to  them.  Some  have  said  that  they  have  found  the  way  to 
such  service  barred  by  racial  prejudices  and  jealousies. 
Speaking  with  the  utmost  frankness,  I  have  not  found  it  so. 
There  is  scarcely  a  town  of  considerable  size  in  all  the  South- 
ern States  into  which  I  might  go  to  spend  three  days  and 
not  have  an  invitation  from  the  negro  pastor  to  preach  to  his 
people.  I  have  had  negro  congregations  to  wait  as  late  as 
10  o'clock  Sunday  night,  after  I  had  spoken  two  or  three 
times  already  during  the  day,  that  I  might  come  to  them  and 
bring  them  the  message  of  the  gospel. 

If  we  cannot  Christianize  the  negro  in  America  with 
our  predominating  white  citizenship  and  with  our  predomi- 
nating Christian  civilization,  with  our  schools  and  churches, 
they  why  need  we  send  a  few  scattered  missionaries  to 
Africa?  Not  that  we  should  send  fewer  to  Africa.  We 
should  send  a  thousandfold  more.  I  speak  not  against  for- 
eign missions,  in  which  I  believe  with  my  whole  being,  but 
in  the  interest  of  home  missions.  The  point  of  the  argument 
is  that  we  must  meet  the  situation  here  among  the  negroes, 
and  that  we  can  do  so  if  we  will. 

In  the  closing  moments  may  I  emphasize  somewhat  our 
debt  and  our  obligations  in  this  matter  of  the  uplift  of  the 
race?  A  task,  it  was  said  in  the  outset,  is  a  definite  piece  of 
work  imposed  by  authority  or  by  circumstances  or  volun- 
tarily assumed  as  an  obligation.  Our  task  is  unmistakably 
enjoined  upon  us.  We  have  an  obligation  as  high  as  heaven, 
as  broad  as  human  interest. 

There  is  the  broad,  universal  human  obligation  of  serv- 
ice. Let  us  hear  the  word  of  the  Lord.  After  all,  the  thing 
we  most  need  in  our  efforts  for  the  uplift  of  the  negro  and 
in  all  social  service  is  the  bedrock  principles  of  the  pure  gos- 
pel. In  the  Gospel  by  John  our  Lord  and  Saviour  says :  "If 
I  then,  your  Lord  and  Master,  have  washed  your  feet;  ye 
also  ought  to  wash  one  another's  feet.  For  I  have  given  you 
an  example,  that  ye  should  do  as  I  have  done  to  you.  Verily, 
verily,  I  say  unto  you,  The  servant  is  not  greater  than  his 
lord ;  neither  he  that  is  sent  greater  than  he  that  sent  him." 


WHITE  MAN'S  TASK  IN  THE  UPLIFT  OF  THE  NEGRO      131 

In  these  words  our  Saviour  lays  upon  every  human  being 
the  obligation  of  service,  and  crowns  his  teaching  by  holding 
himself  up  as  the  supreme  example.  This  principle  is  also 
found  in  Galatians  vi.  2:  "Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens, 
and  so  fulfill  the  law  of  Christ."  No  matter  who  the  man 
with  the  burden,  nor  what  the  color  of  his  skin,  nor  what 
his  previous  nor  present  condition  of  barbarism  or  servitude, 
we  are  to  bear  his  burdens.  This  is  the  highest  and  most 
just  and  most  accurate  test  of  brotherhood;  nothing  else  is 
brotherhood.  This  is  the  foundation  principle  of  all  social 
service.  The  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  rises  to  such  heights  of 
brotherhood  and  service,  becomes  so  intoxicated  with  the 
burden-bearing  spirit,  that  he  issues  this  broad  challenge: 
"Who  is  weak,  and  I  am  not  weak?  who  is  offended,  and  I 
burn  not?"  As  Atlas  bore  the  physical  world  on  his  giant 
shoulders,  so  the  apostle  bore  the  sufferings  and  sorrows 
and  weaknesses  of  every  human  being  in  the  world  on  his 
heart.  This  is  the  divinely  enjoined  obligation  for  every 
one  of  us. 

Again,  we  have  the  further  and  the  greater  obligation  of 
the  strong  to  the  weak.  Perhaps  we  ought  to  be  cautious 
lest  we  should  be  puffed  up  with  overmuch  pride  and  conceit. 
It  is  quite  easy  for  us  to  overestimate  our  own  strength  and 
other  folks'  weakness ;  it  is  easy  for  us  to*  think  and  talk  of 
the  negroes'  emotionalism  and  fanaticism  in  religion,  and  to 
forget  that  not  long  since  some  of  our  own  folks  were  burn- 
ing "witches."  Let  us  be  cautious  and  modest.  Still,  with 
all  modesty  it  may  be  said  that  the  white  race  is  the  stronger, 
the  black  race  the  weaker.  This  is  true  in  many  respects. 
The  white  race  is  stronger  in  native  ability,  stronger  in  in- 
tellectual advancement,  stronger  in  moral  and  religious  cul- 
ture and  development,  stronger  in  worldly  possessions, 
stronger  in  numbers,  stronger  in  civic  and  political  position 
and  authority.  We  are  a  mighty  people,  set  in  a  large  place. 
We  have  upon  us  all  of  the  obligations  of;  the  strong  to  the 
weak.  God's  Word  says  (Romans  xv.  1)  :  "We  then  that 
are  strong  ought  to  bear  the  infirmities  of  the  weak,  and  not 
to  please  ourselves."  Again  (1  Thessalonians  v.  14)  :  "Now 
we  exhort  you,  brethren,  warn  them  that  are  unruly,  com- 
fort the  feeble-minded,  support  the  weak,  be  patient  toward 


132  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

all  men."  These  and  manifold  other  scriptures  that  might 
be  given  bear  to  our  hearts  in  clear  and  unmistakable  tone 
the  message  of  the  eternal  God  that  special  obligation  rests 
upon  the  strong  to  love,  cherish,  support,  help,  and  uplift 
the  weak.  If  we  boast  of  Anglo-Saxon  strength,  if  we  pride 
ourselves  upon  our  numbers  and  position,  intellectual  abil- 
ity, inventive  genius,  and  achievements — if  we  do  these 
things,  I  say,  we  only  proclaim  to  the  world  in  thunder 
tones  our  abiding  obligation  to  help  our  brother  in  black 
whom  the  Lord  has  put  in  our  midst. 

The  culmination  of  our  obligation  to  the  negro  and  of 
his  uplift  is  reached  when  we  think  of  the  past  relations  of 
the  two  races.  We  are  the  negro's  debtor  for  services  ren- 
dered; we  have  been  and  are  and  shall  continue  to  be  the 
beneficiaries  of  his  toil.  For  generations  the  negro  was  our 
slave.  He  felled  our  forests,  tilled  our  soil,  gathered  our 
harvests,  tended  our  homes.  It  is  largely  through  his  sweat 
and  toil  that  our  country,  North  and  South,  has  become  what 
it  is.  The  planter  of  the  South  received  the  product  of  his 
labor  in  the  abundant  yield  of  the  cotton  fields.  The  manu- 
facturer of  the  North  received  that  same  product,  put  it 
through  his  looms  and  sent  it  back  to  the  South,  levying 
large  profits,  both  upon  the  negro  and  his  master.  Neither 
North  nor  South  is  justified  in  making  wry  faces  at  the 
other  about  this  matter.  Every  section  of  the  republic 
profited  equally  from  the  negro's  slavery.  No  thoughtful 
American  can  ignore  the  debt  and  the  obligation  that  we 
owe  the  race  unless*  he  has  a  heart  of  stone.  It  is  easy  for 
us  to  say,  as  indifferent  persons  have  said,  that  the  negro 
has  received  his  compensation  for  all  his  toil  in  that  he 
was  brought  from  heathenism  to  Christianity,  in  that  he 
exchanged  a  barbarous  language  for  the  best  language  of 
modern  times,  in  that  he  became  the  common  heir  with  us 
of  our  goodly  land.  In  one  sense  this  may  be  so.  These 
things  may  in  a  measure  be  the  divine  compensation  to  the 
negro ;  they  may  be  the  expression  of  the  divine  purpose  in 
his  exportation  from  his  fatherland,  his  transportation 
across  the  sea,  and  his  importation  and  enslavement  in 
America.  The  wrath  of  man  may  be  made  in  this  instance, 
as  in  others,  to  praise  God ;  but  even  so  that  in  no  sense  re- 


WHITE  MAN'S  TASK  IN  THE  UPLIFT  OF  THE  NEGRO      133 

lieves  us  of  our  debt  or  discharges  our  obligation.  Every 
fiber  of  our  being  and  every  drop  of  our  blood  ought  to  be 
given  to  the  elevation  and  uplift  of  the  race  as  a  pure  sim- 
ple matter  of  debt. 

Besides,  who  can  think  of  the  tender  relation  that 
existed  between  master  and  slave,  who  that  knows  can 
think,  without  having  the  deepest  depths  of  his  heart  stirred 
with  love  and  devotion  to  the  negro?  I  never  look  upon 
one  of  their  black  faces  without  having  all  of  the  tenderest 
memories  of  the  past  stirred,  and  without  thinking  of  what 
I  owe  to  every  individual  of  the  race  because  of  what  they 
did  for  my  father  and  my  father's  father,  on  back  to  the 
first  day  when  the  negro's  service  in  bonds  began. 

Last  December  in  Washington  City  at  our  second  great 
national  conference  on  the  subject  of  Interstate  Liquor 
Shipment  Legislation,  on  the  closing  night  of  the  confer- 
ence we  were  at  a  great  banquet.  Mr.  Cochran,  of  Balti- 
more, was  introduced  to  respond  to  a  toast.  During  the 
day  it  had  quietly  gone  abroad  among  the  attendants  that 
Mr.  Cochran  had  agreed  to  give  $10,000  for  the  better  finan- 
cing of  the  Anti-Saloon  League  in  its1  work  of  moral  and 
legislative  reform.  When  he  was  presented  he  was  given 
a  great  reception.  A  young  man  of  about  thirty  years,  a 
multimillionaire,  he  stood,  modest  and  meek,  before  the  ap- 
plause. When  the  applause  had  subsided,  he  said  with  great 
moral  earnestness  and  feeling:  "Your  applause  is  all  out 
of  order.  I  have  done  only  what  you  would  have  done  if 
you  had  been  in  my  place.  My  father's  millions  were  accu- 
mulated through  the  labors  of  the  common  people.  Upon 
my  father's  death  they  came  to  me  as  an  inheritance.  Re- 
cently I  have  been  seriously  and  prayerfully  considering  the 
matter  of  my  stewardship,  and  I  have  resolved  that  at  least 
a  large  part  of  my  money  shall  be  expended  for  the  good 
of  the  common  people  through  whose  labors  it  came." 

Some  such  spirit  ought  to  seize  upon  and  surge  in  the 
breast  of  every  true-hearted  American  as  he  thinks  of  our 
debt  and  our  obligation  to  this  great  mass  of  needy  and 
potential  and  growing  and  hopeful  humanity.  Our  mil- 
lions have  come  to  us  largely  through  the  negro's  toil.  Our 
civilization  is  largely  his  achievement,  view  it  as  you  will. 


134  THE    HUMAN   WAY 

As  he  has  been  and  is  the  producer  of  our  civilization,  he 
of  right  ought  to  receive  and  we  both  of  privilege  and  of 
debt  ought  to  bestow  a  full  measure  upon  him,  until  he  shall 
realize  the  highest  and  best  things  possible  to  him  as  our 
brother. 


A  CATHEDRAL  OF  COOPERATION 

RIGHT   REVEREND    WILBUR   P.    THIRKIELD,    D.D.,    LL.D.,    BISHOP 

OF  THE  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH, 

NEW   ORLEANS,   LA. 

A  CATHEDRAL  proper  represents  the  religious  aspira- 
tions and  ideals  of  a  people.  A  noble  place  of  worship,  often 
embodied  in  stone,  it  speaks  of  the  unseen  and  eternal.  A 
Cathedral  of  Cooperation  represents  an  ideal  central  or- 
ganization, to  be  used  as  a  clearing  house  for  the  coopera- 
tive civic,  religious,  and  moral  reform  activities  of  the  peo- 
ple. It  stands  for  the  idea  of  united  activity.  It  is  a  re- 
ligious organization  without  a  Church,  but  rooted  in  the 
hearts  and  sympathies  and  reciprocal  relations  of  all  the 
people;  it  stands  for  the  higher  life  of  the  social  whole. 

Our  plea  is  for  a  permanent  basis  of  Christian  union, 
moral  sympathy,  and  cooperation  among  all  races  in  Amer- 
ica ;  a  Cathedral  of  Cooperation,  established  and  maintained 
in  every  community  as  a  common  meeting  place  for  the 
representatives  of  all  races,  intent  on  the  moral  and  social 
betterment  and  the  uplifting  of  all  the  people. 

As  a  nation  we  face  a  problem  unmatched  in  human  his- 
tory. The  world  is  centering  here.  America  has  become 
the  melting  pot  of  the  nations.  Here  all  races  are  melting, 
seething,  and  reforming.  America  will  be  to  them  either 
the  fires  of  God,  cleansing  and  redeeming,  or  the  fires  of 
hell,  corrupting,  destroying,  damning. 

The  necessity  of  a  well-defined  basis  of  cooperation  be- 
tween diverse  peoples  is  illustrated  and  enforced  by  the 
following  incidents  of  history,  relating  merely  to  two  races, 


A  CATHEDRAL  OF  CO-OPERATION  135 

but  the  principles  of  which  apply  to  the  cooperative  rela- 
tions of  all  races. 

In  the  first  campaign  for  prohibition  in  Atlanta,  in  1885, 
the  best  elements  of  two  races  met  together  in  a  campaign 
that  developed  the  noblest  spirit  of  moral  earnestness  I 
have  ever  witnessed.  In  the  enthusiasm  of  the  hour,  black 
and  white,  then  constituting  practically  the  entire  popula- 
tion of  the  city,  were  fused  together  in  moral  sympathy  and 
in  cooperation  for  the  great  cause  of  civic  and  social  bet- 
terment. The  interests  of  both  in  the  success  of  the  cam- 
paign were  identical.  They  met  and  spoke  on  the  same 
platform  to  the  united  body  of  citizenship.  The  campaign 
ended  in  a  decisive  victory  that  wiped  out  the  saloons  from 
Atlanta.  The  law  was  enforced,  and  for  two  years  evi- 
dences of  progress  furnished  a  demonstration  in  favor  of 
prohibition  in  a  large  city. 

Seeing  the  necessity  for  continued  cooperation  and  a 
bond  of  moral  and  religious  sympathy  between  their  lead- 
ers, a  plea  was  made  in  the  Evangelical  Ministers'  Associa- 
tion for  a  joint  meeting  of  white  and  colored  ministers  every 
three  months  for  mutual  prayer  and  for  the  encouragement 
of  a  spirit  of  unity  in  the  interest  of  temperance  and  moral 
reform  and  for  the  consideration  of  ethical,  civic,  and  re- 
ligious questions  common  to  all  men.  This  proposal  was 
rejected.  Unwholesome  tendencies  might  be  wrapped  up 
in  it,  was  one  objection;  while  others  said  it  was  best  for 
the  races  to  hold  apart  and  each  work  out  its  own  salvation. 
This  developed  self-reliance,  was  the  claim. 

At  the  end  of  two  years  came  the  second  campaign.  The 
argument  from  facts  was  entirely  on  the  side  of  prohibi- 
tion. The  union  of  white  and  colored  leadership  was  far 
from  complete.  Prohibition  was  defeated.  The  only  dis- 
trict or  precinct  in  the  entire  county  for  prohibition  was 
the  South  Bend  district,  in  which  were  located  Gammon 
Theological  Seminary  and  Clark  University.  The  reasons 
for  this  defeat  were  apparent.  There  was  no  bond  of  moral 
union,  no  well-defined  basis  of  cooperation,  no  fusion  of 
the  races,  as  before,  in  a  united  and  enthusiastic  movement. 
The  united  rum  power  had  been  at  work  in  a  campaign  that 


136  THE   HUMAN  WAY 

was  too  much  for  the  prohibition  forces,  the  organizations 
in  support  of  which  had  merely  been  hitched  up  together 
for  this  occasion. 

The  open  saloon  won.  The  forces  of  moral  disorder  and 
violence  again  held  sway.  Vile  dens  were  opened  to  white 
and  colored  men;  the  worst  whisky  was  sold;  the  chain 
gangs,  under  the  convict  lease  system,  an  organized  school 
of  crime,  were  again  kept  filled  to  the  profit  of  the  lessees. 
The  moral  tone  of  the  entire  city  was  lowered. 

In  less  than  twenty  years  came  the  fruitage  in  the  ter- 
ror, bloodshed,  and  death  of  the  awful  Atlanta  riot,  when 
for  days"  the  city  was  held  at  the  mercy  of  the  angry  and 
resistless  mob,  the  red  flames  of  which  had  been  fed  by 
intemperate  and  violent  race  agitation,  heated  by  the  hot 
liquor  of  the  saloon.  Two  races  stood  arrayed  one  against 
the  other.  Violence  reigned.  A  whole  city  was  in  terror. 
The  tragedy  of  the  situation  was  in  this:  there  were  no 
channels  of  communication  open  between  the  better  ele- 
ments of  both  races.  Even  white  ministers  were  not  in 
touch  with  the  colored  leaders.  There  was  no  Cathedral, 
or  broad  common  meeting  place,  for  the  religious  elements 
among  white  and  black,  no  basis  of  cooperation  in  the 
interests  of  peace  and  moral  order,  for  which  the  best  ele- 
ments of  both  races  stood. 

Finally,  at  the  Colored  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  led  by  Governor 
Northen---revered,  beloved — Christian  white  men  met  with 
the  educated  colored  leaders  in  the  effort  to  find  a  basis  for 
counsel  and  cooperation.  But  these  moral  leaders  in  the 
same  community  looked  each  into  the  other's  eyes  as 
strangers.  'In  this  crisis  they  fell  on  their  knees  and 
prayed  themselves  into  a  spirit  of  brotherly  sympathy  and 
cooperation.  This  unpretentious  Y.  M.  C.  A.  building, 
through  this  act,  rose  to  the  dignity  of  a  cathedral  of  God. 
As  a  result,  a  platform  of  mutual  confidence  and  harmony 
between  the  best  elements  of  both  races  was  established. 
Riot  and  bitterness  were  allayed.  A  city  was  snatched  from 
the  remorseless  and  inhuman  jaws  of  a  bloody,  avenging, 
resistless  mob.  Now  a  new  atmosphere  and  new  relations 
obtain,  as  witnessed  in  the  recent  Y.  ML  C.  A.  campaign. 


A  CATHEDRAL  OF   CO-OPERATION  137 

A  colored  leader  has  said  that  the  riot  proved  a  blessing 
in  disguise. 

This  bit  of  history  enforces  my  plea  for  cooperation  as 
opposed  to  separation,  neglect,  or  repression  in  the  treat- 
ment of  all  immigrant  or  belated  races  and  backward  peo- 
ples in  this  land  of  composite  civilization.  The  principle 
proposed  is  simply  that  of  the  Golden  Rule  and  the  applica- 
tion of  the  teachings  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  among 
various  peoples  who  must  live  and  work  out  their  destiny 
together. 

This  idea  of  a  Cathedral  of  Cooperation  is  American, 
reasonable,  Christian.  It  is  based  on  the  Christian  doc- 
trine of  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of 
man.  This  is  the  central  doctrine  of  Jesus  who  was,  in  the 
word  of  a  great  historian,  the  "first  to  bring  the  value  of 
every  human  soul  to  light,  and  what  he  did  no  one  can  any 
more  undo." 

This  plea  is  based  on  the  Christian  doctrine  lying  at 
the  foundation  of  modern  democracy — reverence  for  man  as 
man.  As  Kant  has  put  it:  "Always  treat  humanity, 
whether  in  yourself  or  another,  as  a  person,  never  as  a 
thing."  It  is  in  the  interest  of  giving  every  man  a  chance 
to  develop  the  best  and  divinest  that  is  in  him;  to  give  to 
every  man  a  footing  of  equality  of  opportunity  in  the  strug- 
gle of  life.  It  is  only  as  all  men  plan  and  work  together  in 
sympathy  and  cooperation  that  democracy  comes  to  its  best. 

Jesus  never  taught  the  flat  equality  of  men.  He  did 
give  a  working  principle  which,  wrought  out  in  the  life  of 
mankind,  would  bring  harmony  and  peace  and  the  highest 
development  to  the  individual  and  society. 

This  idea  of  cooperation  lies  at  the  very  basis  even  of 
material  progress.  It  encourages  every  man  to  be  and  to  do 
his  best.  Permanent  progress  rests  back  in  the  home.  It 
has  to  do  with  food  and  health  and  family  welfare.  A 
spirit  of  cooperation  opposes  the  policy  that  would  leave 
weaker  peoples  to  lift  themselves  up  by  their  own  boot 
straps.  It  would  lend  a  hand  to  the  weaker  brother.  For- 
ever is  it  true  that  the  hand  that  contracts  and  cheats  any 
race  clutches  at  the  throat  and  chokes  broadest  prosperity. 


138  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

The  moral  life  of  all  is  involved  in  this  plan  of  co- 
operation. People  who  trample  any  part  of  the  social  whole 
under  the  foot  of  ignorance,  corruption,  or  sensuality  will 
sooner  or  later  find  themselves  under  the  hoofs  of  the  same 
devil.  No  man  can  put  a  chain  around  the  ankle  of  his 
fellow  man  without  sooner  or  later  finding  the  other  end 
of  that  chain  about  his  own  neck.  Unless  we  lift  all  people 
up,  sooner  or  later  they  may  drag  us  and  our  children  down. 

Such  a  broad  plan  of  cooperation  among  races  will  over- 
come tendencies  to  violence.  Lawlessness  sets  no  limits  of 
race.  The  Anglo-Saxon,  in  the  end,  is  not  safe  where  the 
rights  of  any  other  man  are  violated.  Retaliation  is  human 
and  inevitable.  Kant  is  right:  "If  law  ceases,  all  worth 
of  human  life  ceases  also." 

The  seat  of  race  antagonism  is  race  prejudice.  The 
united  sympathy  at  the  basis  of  cooperation  curbs  this 
harmful  spirit.  Never  before  has  there  been  such  a  min- 
gling of  nationalities.  National  and  race  barriers  are  break- 
ing down.  The  world  is  becoming  one.  To-day  the  adjust- 
ment of  race  differences  is  the  problem  not  only  of  the 
humanitarian,  but  of  true  civilization.  The  modern  ideal 
must  be  world  citizenship. 

Our  love  for  Christ  has  not  made  the  progress  it  should 
in  demanding  humanity,  justice,  and  sympathy  for  all  men. 
How  often  we  hear  the  terms,  "Sheeny,"  "Nigger,"  "Dago," 
"Hobo" — damning  to  hate  and  intolerance  a  whole  race 
because  of  the  coarse  or  objectionable  qualities  of  certain 
members!  This  is  utterly  unchristian.  The  very  attitude 
toward  the  Jew  is  the  reproach  of  Christian  history. 

Such  names  are  apt  to  have  behind  them  an  attitude 
of  contempt  and  hate  that  is  dangerous.  It  is  often  the 
spirit  of  the  clinched  fist,  with  the  stone  held  for  hurling 
in  the  hour  of  crisis.  If  not  curbed,  we  shall  often  see,  as 
in  the  past  in  California  toward  the  Japanese,  in  Omaha 
toward  the  Greek,  and  in  Mississippi  and  Illinois  toward 
the  negro,  the  demon  spirit  of  Russia  that  drives  out  the 
Jew,  confiscates,  murders.  Face  to  face  with  an  unprece- 
dented commingling  of  the  races,  such  an  attitude  is  full  of 
peril. 


A  CATHEDRAL  OF  CO-OPERATION  139 

One  of  our  first  problems  is  the  conquest  of  race  preju- 
dice. In  this  is  involved  not  merely  religious  progress  but 
true  civilization.  You  can  never  reach  and  Christianize 
peoples  whom  you  patronize  or  despise  as  inherently  and 
forever  inferior  because  of  birth  or  color  or  nationality. 
Red,  yellow,  black,  or  brown  skins  are  the  gifts  of  God  as 
well  as  white  skins.  Human  hearts  beat  behind  them  all, 
and  suffer  and  struggle  and  bleed  and  aspire. 

Our  Anglo-Saxon  civilization  is  gathering  up  in  its 
sweep  and  current  men  of  all  races.  Only  a  spirit  of  broad 
sympathy  and  generous  cooperation  will  redeem  these  peo- 
ples out  of  the  narrowness  of  race  feuds  and  hatreds  and 
rivalries  into  a  civilization  that  is  genuinely  tolerant,  co- 
operative, Christian. 

Objection  to  this  spirit  of  cooperation  roots  back  into 
the  really  groundless  fear  of  what  is  called  social  equality. 
Such  a  fetish  has  this  become,  especially  as  related  to  one 
race,  that  it  has  led  to  neglect  and  indifference  that  are 
startling.  As  the  late  Governor  Northen  has  said :  "I  have 
heard  many  sermons  preached  on  missions  to  negroes  in 
Africa,  but  I  never  heard  a  sermon  on  missions  to  Africans 
in  the  South." 

Such  a  fear  is  groundless,  because  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  social  equality.  There  is  social  privilege  and  civil  right, 
but  no  such  thing  as  social  right.  Every  man  is  lord  of  his 
own  castle,  and  his  personality  is  sacred  against  invasion.. 
Governor  Northen  has  pierced  to  the  center  of  this  whole 
business  in  the  following  words:  "Social  equality  is  a 
delusion  set  up  by  the  demagogue  in  civic  contentions  to 
meet  his  ambition  for  place  and  personal  power,  and 
paraded  as  a  device  of  the  devil  for  the  strengthening  of 
the  influences  against  the  kingdom  of  God."  What  men 
want  is  not  equality,  but  sympathy  and  humanity,  civic  jus- 
tice and  human  rights. 

Preachers  are  the  leaders  of  the  moral  forces  in  all 
races.  Let  there  be  an  organization,  as  broad  as  humanity 
and  as  catholic  as  Christ,  in  every  town  and  city,  to  mem- 
bership in  which  representatives  of  all  Churches  and  of  all 
religious  and  moral  reform  movements,  of  every  religion  and 


140  THE   HUMAN   WAY 

race,  shall  be  eligible.  And  here  let  us  note  the  startling 
fact  that  there  has  been  a  larger  spirit  of  cooperation 
between  scientists  and  physicians  of  various  races,  in  work 
for  human  welfare,  than  there  has  been  between  ministers 
of  various  faiths  and  races  for  the  moral  and  social  bet- 
terment of  all  peoples — that  is,  science  has  done  what 
religion  has  failed  to  do. 

At  stated  meetings  of  this  body  let  all  matters  that 
relate  to  social  well-being  and  moral  and  civic  progress  be 
freely  considered.  The  outcome  will  be  .mutual  sympathy, 
religious  tolerance,  and  a  broader  spirit  of  cooperation. 
In  the  hour  of  calamity  or  of  social  conflict  this  federated 
body  will  furnish  a  center  for  common  leadership  and 
united  action. 

For  example,  interest  will  be  quickened  in  the  common 
schools,  which  are  fundamental  to  a  democracy;  the  teach- 
ing force,  the  equipment,  the  methods  of  instruction,  the 
general  moral  atmosphere  of  the  schools  may  be  wisely 
considered. 

The  housing  of  the  people,  sanitation,  the  cleansing  of 
physical  conditions,  such  as  have  lifted  Wilmington  to  a 
higher  plane,  would  be  considered. 

In  such  a  union  the  solidarity  of  race  would  be  evident. 
The  fact  that  disease  draws  no  race  lines  would  clearly 
appear;  and  that  the  pestilence  that  walketh  in  the  dark- 
ness and  squalor  of  the  alley  flies  forth  in  the  destruction 
that  wasteth  even  in  the  noonday  of  the  electric-lighted 
street. 

Such  an  organization  would  in  itself  go  far  toward 
creating  a  new  atmosphere  of  hope  among  all  peoples,  and 
would  especially  stimulate  and  encourage  depressed  classes. 
Without  hope  and  high  incentive  born  of  civic  sympathy  and 
cooperation,  no  race  or  people  can  come  to  its  best. 

And  when  this  spirit  of  genuine  cooperation  and  patient 
sympathy  wins  its  way  among  all  peoples,  then  shall  be 
fulfilled  that  prophetic  dream  of  your  own  Henry  W.  Grady 
— the  dawning  of  the  new  and  larger  day,  when  eternal  sun- 
shine shall  rain  its  light  and  benediction  on  all  races  walk- 
ing together  in  mutual  cooperation  and  abiding  peace. 


STATEMENT  ON   RACE  RELATIONSHIPS  141 


STATEMENT  ON  RACE  RELATIONSHIPS 

No  one  who  has  attended  the  sessions  of  this  sectional 
conference  could  fail  to  realize  that  there  is  a  growing  and 
deepening  interest  on  the  part  of  Southern  white  men  in 
the  nine  million  negroes  who  live  by  our  sides  in  the  South. 
Four  sectional  conferences  were  held  in  discussing  the 
above  topic,  with  an  average  attendance  of  between  three 
and  four  hundred.  The  meeting  was  characterized  by  san- 
ity, scientific  investigation,  a  spirit  of  cooperation,  and  an 
intense  desire  for  helpfulness  to  all.  A  great  many  of  the 
leading  universities  in  the  South  were  represented  by  their 
professors  or  Presidents,  and  it  was  evident  from  the  very 
outset  that  the  best  thinkers  of  both  races  had  come  to- 
gether with  the  determination  to  study,  without  prejudice, 
this  greatest  problem  of  the  entire  South.  At  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  fourth  session  the  committee  of  representative 
Southern  white  men  having  this  conference  in  hand  drew 
together  the  following  statement,  not  in  the  form  of  a  reso- 
lution, but  as  a  statement  of  conviction  of  some  of  the 
things  needed  to  be  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  entire 
South. 


Recognizing  that  tuberculosis  and  other  contagious  dis- 
eases now  prevalent  among  the  negroes  of  the  South  are 
a  menace  to  the  health,  welfare,  and  prosperity  of  both 
races,  we  believe  there  should  be  a  most  hearty  cooperation 
between  the  health  authorities  of  the  various  States  and 
cities  and  the  colored  physicians,  ministers,  and  teachers. 
We  further  believe  that  practical  lessons  on  sanitation  and 
hygiene  should  be  given  in  all  public  schools,  both  white 
and  colored,  and  also  in  the  institutions  for  advanced  train- 
ing throughout  the  Southern  States. 

Recognizing  that  the  South  is  no  exception  to  the  nations 
of  the  world  in  that  its  courts  of  justice  are  often  more 
favorable  to  the  rich  than  to  the  poor,  and  further  recog- 
nizing the  fact  that  the  juxtaposition  of  a  more  privileged 
race  and  a  less  privileged  race  complicates  this  situation, 


142  THE    HUMAN   WAY 

we  plead  for  courts  of  justice  instead  of  mere  courts  of 
law;  we  plead  further  for  a  deeper  sense  of  obligation  on 
the  part  of  the  more  privileged  class  to  see  to  it  that  justice 
is  done  to  every  man  and  woman,  white  and  black  alike. 

Recognizing  that  lynch  law  is  no  cure  for  the  evil  of 
crime,  but  is  rather  an  aggravation,  and  is  itself  the  quintes- 
sence of  all  crime,  since  it  weakens  law,  and  if  unchecked 
must  finally  destroy  the  whole  bond  that  holds  us  together 
and  makes  civilization  and  progress  possible;  other  things 
being  equal,  we  recognize  that  a  crime  is  worse  which  is 
committed  by  an  individual  of  one  race  upon  an  individual 
of  another  race,  and  that  form  of  retaliation  is  most  harm- 
ful which  is  visited  by  one  race  upon  another.  We  further 
believe  that  there  must  be  a  prompt  and  just  administration 
of  the  law  in  the  detection  and  punishment  of  criminals, 
but  to  this  must  be  added  those  influences  of  knowledge 
and  of  good  will  between  the  races  which  will  more  and 
more  prevent  the  commission  of  crime. 

Recognizing  further  that  the  economic  and  moral  wel- 
fare of  the  South  is  greatly  dependent  on  a  better  trained 
negro  in  all  the  walks  of  life  in  which  he  is  engaged,  and 
further  recognizing  that  the  State  is  in  the  business  of 
education  for  the  sake  of  making  better  citizens  of  all  men, 
white  and  black  alike,  and  thereby  safeguarding  the  life  and 
property  of  the  community  and  upbuilding  its  economic 
prosperity — 

In  view  of  this  fact,  we  believe  that  four  definite  steps 
of  improvement  must  be  made  in  the  negro  schools  of  the 
South.  Such  steps  of  improvement  are  already  under  way 
in  a  number  of  our  Southern  States: 

1.  The  schools  must  be  made  to  fit  into  and  minister 
definitely  to  the  practical  life  of  the  community  in  which 
they  are  located. 

2.  There  must  be  a  larger  amount  of  money  put  into 
our  public  schools  for  negroes,  thus  enabling  them  to  have 
longer  terms  and  to  secure  better  trained  teachers. 

3.  There  must  be  a  more  thorough  supervision  on  the 
part  of  the  white  superintendents  following  the  lead  of 
many  superintendents  already  working. 


STATEMENT   ON   RACE   RELATIONSHIPS  143 

4.  We  must  attempt  to  furnish  to  these  negro  schools, 
through  public  funds,  a  better  type  of  trained  teachers,  and 
to  this  end  more  sane,  thoroughgoing  schools  for  negro 
teachers  must  be  established. 

DR.  A.  J.  BARTON, 

Superintendent  of  Educational  Work  of  Southern 

Baptist  Church  in  Texas,  Waco; 

DR.  J.  D.  HAMMOND, 
President  of  Paine  College,  Augusta,  Ga.; 

DR.  GEORGE  W.  HUBBARD, 
Dean  Meharry  Medical  College,  Nashville,  Tenn.; 

BISHOP  WALTER  R.  LAMBUTH, 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  Nashville,  Tenn.; 

REV.  JOHN  LITTLE, 
Presbyterian  Mission,  Louisville,  Ky.; 

BISHOP  WILBUR  P.  THIRKIELD, 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  New  Orleans,  La.; 

DR.  C.  B.  WILMER, 
Episcopal  Minister,  Atlanta,  Ga.; 

Miss  BELLE  H.  BENNETT, 
President  Woman's  Missionary  Council,  Methodist 

Episcopal  Church,  South,  Richmond,  Fa.; 

DR.  W.  D.  WEATHERFORD, 
Secretary  International  Committee  Y.  M.  C.  A., 

Secretary; 
DR.  J.  H.  DILLARD, 

President  Jeanes  Board,  and  Director  of  Slater  Fund, 

New  Orleans,  La. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


(Prepared  by  Dr.  W.  D.  Weatherford,  Nashville,  Tenn.) 

Braithwaite,  William  Stanley.  Lyrics  of  Life  and  Love.  Herbert  B. 
Turner  &  Co.,  Boston.  A  series  of  poems  of  more  than  passing 
beauty  by  a  negro  poet. 

Brown,  William  Garratt.  The  Lower  South  in  American  History. 
The  Macmillan  Company.  A  true  picture  of  the  rise  of  the  Old 
South  and  its  early  influence;  just  a  little  pessimistic  in  tone. 

Bryce,  James.  The  Relation  of  the  Advanced  and  the  Backward  Races 
of  Mankind.  Clarendon  Press.  A  clear  statement  of  the  conditions 
under  which  races  amalgamate  and  those  under  which  racial 
integrity  prevails. 

Baker,  Ray  Stannard.  Following  the  Color  Line.  Doubleday,  Page  & 
Co.  A  clear,  fair  statement  of  race  conditions  as  seen  by  a  North- 
ern man  on  an  extended  tour  through  the  South;  perhaps  the 
sanest  book  on  the  topic  by  a  Northern  man. 

Cutler,  James  Elbert.  Lynch  Law.  Longmans;  Green  &  Co.  A  care- 
ful compilation  of  the  facts  of  lynching  and  a  statement  of  the 
causes  and  effects.  It  should  be  read  by  every  Southern  man. 

Commons,  John  R.  Races  and  Immigrants  in  America.  The  Mac- 
millan Company,  1908. 

Davis,  Daniel  Webster.  Weh  Down  Souf.  The  Helman  Taylor  Com- 
pany, Cleveland.  Poems  of  the  Old  South  of  true  beauty  and 
sentiment. 

DuBois,  W.  E.  B.  The  Souls  of  the  Black  Folk.  A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co. 
From  the  standpoint  of  one  of  the  most  cultured  and  literary 
colored  men  in  America.  It  bears  the  marks  of  keen  insight  into 
the  thought  of  the  race;  at  times  bitterly  pessimistic. 

Douglass,  H.  Paul.  Christian  Reconstruction  in  the  South.  The  Pil- 
grim Press.  A  study  of  the  work  of  the  American  Missionary 
Association  in  the  South. 

Dowd,  Jerome.  The  Negro  Races.  The  Macmillan  Company.  A 
scholarly  study  of  three  of  the  five  great  divisions  of  the  negro 
race  in  Africa. 

Dunbar,  Paul  Laurence.  Lyrics  of  Lowly  Life.  Dodd,  Mead  &  Co. 
Poems  that  catch  the  spirit  of  the  old-time  "darkey"  to  a  remark- 
able degree.  Likewise  his  "Poems  of  Cabin  and  Field,"  etc. 

Ellwood,  Charles  A.  Sociology  and  Modern  Social  Problems.  Ameri- 
can Book  Company.  Contains  a  very  illuminating  chapter  on  the 
"iNegro  Problem." 

Gibson,  J.  W.,  and  Crogman,  W.  H.  Progress  of  a  Race.  J.  L. 
Nichols  &  Co.  A  running  account  of  the  life  of  the  American 
negro;  not  at  all  too  accurate. 

Hart,  Albert  Russell.    The  Southern  South.    Appleton  &  Co. 

Helm,  Mary.  The  Upward  Path.  Young  People's  Missionary  Move- 
ment. A  very  sane  statement  by  a  Southern  woman  who  writes 
with  clear  insight  and  with  deep  sympathy  for  the  negro's  struggle. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  145 

Hoffman,  Frederick  L.  Race  Traits  and  Tendencies  of  the  American 
Negro.  American  Economic  Association.  Published  by  Macmillan 
&  Co.  The  most  scholarly  and  exhaustive  study  yet  made  of 
population,  vital  statistics,  anthrometry,  and  race  amalgamation. 

Harrison  and  Barnes.  The  Gospel  among  the  Slaves.  Smith  &  Lamar, 
Nashville,  Tenn.  A  careful  compilation  of  facts  of  the  negro  dur- 
ing the  days  of  slavery. 

Johnston,  Sir  Harry  H.  The  Negro  in  the  New  World.  The  Mac- 
millan Company.  A  compendium  of  facts  ahout  the  negro,  very 
suggestive  and  quite  accurate  on  the  whole,  though  a  bit  super- 
ficial as  to  Southern  conditions. 

Munford,  Beverly  B.  Virginia's  Attitude  toward  Slavery  and  Secession. 
One  of  the  best  statements  yet  written  concerning  the  causes  of 
the  Civil  War;  not  belligerent,  but  setting  forth  simple  facts. 

Miller,  Kelly.  Race  Adjustment.  The  Neale  Publishing  Company. 
Strictly  reliable  as  to  facts,  showing  deep  insight  into  the  life 
of  the  race;  a  little  critical  of  the  white  man. 

Murphy,  Edgar  Gardner.  The  Present  South.  The  Macmillan  Co., 
1904.  The  best  expression  of  the  spirit  of  the  New  South,  dealing 
with  many  phases  of  the  negro  question. 

The  Basis  of  Ascendency.  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.  An  "explicit 
statement  of  those  fundamental  principles  of  policy"  which  under- 
lie the  solution  of  the  race  question.  Absolutely  fair  and  Christian 
in  spirit. 

Nassau,  Robert  Hammill.  Fetichism  in  West  Africa.  Charles  Scrib- 
ner's  Sons.  A  most  entertaining  and  thorough  statement  of  the 
religious  life  and  practices  of  the  West  African  negro. 

Odum,  Howard  W.  Social  and  Mental  Traits  of  the  Negro.  Long- 
mans, Green  &  Co.  A  statement  based  on  an  extended  investiga- 
tion, but  not  altogether  too  fair-minded.  It  hardly  lives  up  to  its 
title. 

Page,  Thomas  Nelson.  The  Negro,  the  Southerner's  Problem.  Charles 
Scribner's  Sons.  Characterized  by  thorough  familiarity  with  the 
"old-time"  negro,  with  less  accurate  knowledge  of  present  con- 
ditions. Prone  to  magnify  all  the  virtues  of  the  slave  and  all 
the  vices  of  the  present  negro. 

Phillips,  Ulrich  B.  A  Documentary  History  of  American  Industrial 
Society,  Vols.  I.  and  II.  Arthur  H.  Clark  Company.  Bringing 
together  a  great  many  of  the  old  manuscripts  bearing  on  planta- 
tion and  frontier  life;  invaluable  to  the  student  who  wishes  to 
get  back  to  first  sources. 

Royce,  Josiah.  Race  Questions,  Provincialism,  and  Other  American 
Problems.  The  Macmillan  Company.  It  is  tolerably  certain  that 
few  Southern  men  will  accept  Professor  Royce's  statement  that 
race  antipathies  are  on  a  "level  with  a  dread  of  snakes  and  of 
mice."  The  volume  can  hardly  be  called  unbiased  or  scholarly. 

Riley,  B.  F.  The  White  Man's  Burden.  Published  by  the  author,  Bir- 
mingham, Ala.  A  very  sane  and  sympathetic  discussion  of  the 
negro  question  from  a  Southern  man's  standpoint. 

Race  Relationship  Library.  Associated  Press,  124  East  Twenty-Eighth 
Street,  New  York.  Price  in  original  bindings,  $9.75;  in  this  espe- 
cially bound  set,  $5.00,  carriage  collect.  This  library  of  seven 
volumes  deals  with  the  political,  economic,  social,  educational, 


146  THE   HUMAN  WAY 

moral,  and  religious  aspects  of  the  race  problem.  It  brings  to- 
gether the  work  of  some  of  the  greatest  leaders  in  this  realm  of 
thought,  chosen  out  of  the  scores  of  volumes  printed  in  the  last 
ten  years.  In  scholarly  accuracy,  statesmanlike  outlook,  and  fair- 
mindedness  toward  all  concerned,  this  library  constitutes  the 
ripest,  sanest  and  most  sympathetic  statement  of  these  problems. 

Shannon.  A.  H.  Racial  Integrity.  Smith  &  Lamar,  Nashville,  Tenn., 
and  Dallas,  Tex.  A  study  of  race  amalgamation  and  other  topics. 

Sinclair,  William  A.  The  Aftermath  of  Slavery.  Small,  Maynard 
&  Company.  Somewhat  unfair  in  its  treatment  of  the  question. 
The  author  is  a  colored  man  who  chafes  under  present  conditions. 

Smith,  William  Benjamin.  The  Color  Line.  McClure,  Phillips  &  Co. 
Brilliant  in  its  statements,  but  bitter  in  its  sarcasm.  It  is  doubt- 
ful if  the  conclusions  reached  as  to  the  future  decay  of  the  negro 
will  prove  true. 

Stephenson,  Gilbert  Thomas.  Race  Distinctions  in  American  Law. 
D.  Appleton  &  Co.  A  clear,  unbiased,  and  helpful  statement  of 
just  the  distinction,  and  at  times  discriminations,  made  through- 
out the  United  States  in  the  laws  governing  race  relationships. 

Thomas,  William  Hannibal.  The  American  Negro.  The  Macmillan 
Company.  The  harshest  arraignment  of  the  race  by  one  of  its  own 
members.  While  showing  clear  insight  into  negro  character,  it  is 
certainly  unfair. 

Washington,  Booker  T.  The  Story  of  the  Negro,  Vols.  I.  and  II. 
Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.  A  history  of  the  negro,  past  and  present, 
written  in  a  most  interesting  and  readable  style.  It  cannot  fail 
to  be  of  great  service  to  all  who  want  to  know  the  negro  as  a  race. 

My  Larger  Education.  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.  A  continuation  of 
the  life  story  of  the  author,  written  in  that  easy  conversational 
style  which  makes  it  very  readable.  Like  everything  else  Dr. 
Washington  has  written,  it  is  fair-minded  and  will  give  ample 
returns  for  reading. 

Up  from  Slavery.  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.  An  autobiography  of 
the  writer,  full  of  interest,  and  written  in  the  finest  spirit. 

Working  with  Hands.  Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.  A  splendid  story 
of  the  Tuskegee  Institute  and  a  powerful  argument  for  industrial 
education. 

Character  Building.    Doubleday,  Page  &  Co. 

Chapel  Talks.    Being  talks  made  by  the  author  at  Tuskegee  Institute. 

Weatherford,  W.  D.  Negro  Life  in  the  South.  Cloth,  50  cents.  A  well- 
arranged  collection  of  concrete  facts,  by  an  open-minded  South- 
erner who  knows  the  negro  and  who  knows  also  what  the  negro's 
white  friends  need  to  understand  in  order  to  help  him.  "A  distinct 
addition  to  the  swiftly  gathering  forces  now  crystallizing  the 
sentiment  of  the  South  into  an  organized  demand  for  the  industrial 
education  of  the  negro." — (Southern  Workman.) 

Present  Forces  in  Negro  Progress.  "In  spirit,  in  statement  of  facts, 
and  in  general  conception,  it  is  admirable.  The  book  will  do  good 
to  every  man  who  reads  it,  both  in  giving  him  a  new  insight  into 
the  nature  of  the  problem,  and  in  quickening  in  him  the  spirit 
of  mutual  helpfulness.  I  am  unable  adequately  to  express  to  you 
my  deep  personal  gratitude  for  the  great  work  you  are  doing." 
(President  S.  C.  Mitchell,  University  of  South  Carolina.) 


PUBLICATIONS  OF  THE  SOUTHERN 
SOCIOLOGICAL  CONGRESS 


1.  THE  GALL  OF  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

The  proceedings  of  the  first  Congress  held  in  Nashville,  1912.  It 
contains  forty-one  addresses  by  specialists  on  such  subjects  as:  Child 
Welfare,  Courts  and  Prisons,  Public  Health,  Negro  Problems,  Enemies 
of  the  Home,  Education  and  Co-operation,  The  Church  and  Social 
Service,  and  the  Qualifications  of  Social  Workers.  387  pages;  price,  $2. 


2.  THE  CHALLENGE  OF  SOCIAL  SERVICE 

It  contains  the  following  six  addresses  of  "The  South  Mobilizing  for 
Social  Service:" 

1.  The    Social    Program   of   the   Church,   Prof.   Walter  Rauschen- 
busch,  D.D. 

2.  The  Drag  on  Modern  Civilization,  Rev.  Henry  Stiles  Bradley,  D.D. 

3.  The  Control  of  Social  Diseases,  Powhatan  S.  Schenck,  M.D. 

4.  The  Negro  Working  Out  His  Own  Salvation,  Prof.  E.  C.  Bran- 
son, A.M. 

5.  Modern   Ideas   of  Administration  in  the   Government  of  Work- 
houses and  Penal  Institutions,  Warden  W.  H.  Whittaker. 

6.  The  Protestant  Church  and  Social  Service,  Rev.  Charles  S.  Mac- 
farland,  D.D. 

Eighty  pages,  paper-bound,  25  cents  per  copy;    $18  per  hundred. 
Specially  suitable  for  classes  and  distribution  in  Churches. 


3.  THE  SOUTH  MOBILIZING  FOR 
SOCIAL  SERVICE 

Proceedings  of  the  Second  Sociological  Congress,  held  in  Atlanta, 
April,  1913.  Handsomely  bound  in  cloth.  Some  of  the  important  chap- 
ters are:  Conservation  of  National  Efficiency,  Public  Health,  Courts 
and  Prisons,  Child  Welfare,  Organized  Charities,  Saving  People  in 
Transit,  Race  Problems,  The  Church  and  Social  Service.  It  is  a 
library  in  itself  on  sociological  subjects.  704  pages.  Price,  $2.00,  net. 
Copy  furnished  free  to  members. 

Order  of: 

SOUTHERN  SOCIOLOGICAL  CONGRESS 

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YOU  ARE  INVITED  TO  JOIN  THE  SOUTH- 
ERN SOCIOLOGICAL  CONGRESS 


PURPOSE 

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the  South." 

SLOGAN 

"The  solid  South  for  a  better  nation." 

PLATFORM 

"Brotherhood." 

OBJECTIVE 

"To  enlist  the  entire  South  in  a  crusade  of   social  health  and 
righteousness." 

HISTORY 

Inaugurated  by  Gov.  Ben  W.  Hooper,  of  Tennessee;  founded 
by  Mrs.  Anna  Russell  Cole,  of  Nashville  ;  supported  by  the 
hearty  co-operation  of  all  Southern  Governors,  save  one  ; 
presided  over  during  1913  by  Gov.  William  H.  Mann,  of  Vir- 
ginia; held  second  Congress  in  Atlanta  April  25  to  29  with  over 
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PROCEEDINGS 

The  important  addresses  and  findings  of  the  Atlanta  Congress 
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free  to  members.  Additional  copies  can  be  secured  for  $2  each. 

To  J.  E.   McCULLOCH,   General  Secretary,   Southern  Sociological 
Congress,  Nashville,  Tenn.: 

Please  enroll  the  following  name  as  a  member  of  the  Sociological 
Congress,  for  which  I  (^L™™)  membership  fee  of  $2. 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  LOS  ANGELES 

THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


APR  2  6  1962 


i  which  it  was  borrowed. 


UNIVERSITY  of  CALIFORNIA 

AT 

LOS    AMnTTT  T?C 


A     001  is    502 


1 


